Hsiao-Ying Wey1, Jinqi Li1,
Jiongjiong Wang2, Sung-Hong Park1, Timothy Q. Duong1
1Research Imaging Institute, UT Health
Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States; 2Radiology,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Quantitative
blood flow measurement of the retina is critically important as many retinal
diseases could perturb basal blood flow and blood flow responses to
stimulations. In this study, we developed and applied the pseudo-continuous
ASL to improve ASL contrast, and systematically explored blood-flow MRI of
the retina in anesthetized baboon on a human clinical scanner. Anesthetized
baboons were used to exclude movement artifacts such that we could focus on
evaluating hardware feasibility and imaging parameters for high-resolution
quantitative BF imaging of the retina as a first step toward evaluating
potential human applications.