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Abstract #1270

Estimation of Water Exchange across the Blood Brain Barrier using Contrast-enhanced ASL

Helen Beaumont1, Aimee Pearson2, Matthias J van Osch3, and Laura M Parkes1

1Centre for Imaging Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom, 2Dept of Physics, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom, 3C.J. Gorter Center for High Field MRI, Dept of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, Netherlands

This study investigates the possibility of estimating water exchange across the blood-brain barrier by manipulating the T1 of blood using a gadolinium-based contrast agent, together with pre- and post-contrast Arterial Spin Labelling measurements. Gadolinium lowers the T1 of blood, but not of tissue, allowing the proportions of label in intra- and extra-vascular tissue to be estimated. A Look-Locker readout was used to measure the temporal evolution of the ASL signal at four doses of contrast agent. Even with T1 of approximately 500ms, an ASL subtraction signal was still detected at an inversion time of 2s, indicating that labelled blood water has exchanged with tissue water.

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