David Paling1, Esben T. Petersen2, Daniel J. Tozer1, Claudia AM Wheeler-Kingshott1, Raju Kapoor1, David H. Miller1, Xavier Golay3
1NMR Research Unit, Department of Neuroinflammation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom; 2University Medical Center, Utrecht, Netherlands; 3NMR Research Unit, Department of Brain Repair and Rehabiliation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom
Alteration in cerebral blood flow (CBF) has been noted in MS, however whether this represents change in metabolic demand, or dysregulation of perfusion control mechanisms is not established. We used the QUASAR arterial spin labelling sequence which simultaneously quantifies CBF and arterial transit time (ATT), the time taken for labelled arterial blood to transit to the capillaries, in patients with relapsing remitting MS and healthy controls. Increase in white matter ATT (1.1 vs 0.94s, P=0.05) and CBF (20.4 vs 17.1 mls min-1, p=0.02), and increase in grey matter ATT (0.99 vs 0.85s, p=0.05) was seen in MS. These findings suggest alteration in perfusion control in MS.