Bradley J. MacIntosh1,2, Lars Marquardt3,
Ursula G. Schulz3, Peter M. Rothwell3, Peter Jezzard2
1Imaging & Brain Sciences,
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada; 2Clinical
Neurology, FMRIB Centre, Oxford, OXON, United Kingdom; 3Clinical
Neurology, Stroke Prevention Research Unit, Oxford, OXON, United Kingdom
Arterial
spin labeling is a versatile perfusion MRI technique and recent studies have
shown clinical merit. One clinical arena that is under-investigated is
perfusion profiles in patients with vertebral or basilar artery (VBA)
stenosis. The arrival of the magnetic spin tracer is expected to be delayed
in these patients therefore a multiple inflow 3D-GRASE-PASL implementation is
used to estimate cerebral blood flow (CBF) and the arterial arrival time
(AAT). Patients with presumed severe
VBA disease (N=4), on the basis of their clinical history, showed
significantly prolonged AAT (P<0.01) and reduced CBF (P=0.08) when
compared to patient with presumed no VBA disease (N=10).
Keywords