Abstract #3617

Bolus Perfusion-Weighted Imaging Measurement of Quantitative Cerebral Blood Flow Can Be Improved Using an Arterial Spin Label Derived Scaling Factor: a Comparative Xenon CT Study

Greg Zaharchuk¹, Matus Straka¹, Ajit Shankaranarayan², David C. Alsop³, Michael E. Marks¹, Michael E. Moseley¹, Roland Bammer¹

¹Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; ²Appled Sciences Laboratory - West, GE Healthcare, Menlo Park, CA, USA; ³Department of Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

Arterial spin labeling and bolus dynamic susceptibility contrast perfusion-weighted imaging are two methods to measure CBF quantitatively with MRI. While ASL can measure normal CBF well, it is prone to errors at low flow rates. We propose using as ASL-based correction factor in regions with short Tmax, to scale bolus PWI CBF maps. We found that the combined PWI-ASL method was more accurate than either method used separately in 16 patients with cerebrovascular disease, using xenon CT CBF as a gold standard.