Michael Kelly1, 2, Matthew Rowland1, 2, Thomas Okell1, Michael Chappell3, Jon Westbrook2, Peter Jezzard1, Kyle Pattinson1, 2
1FMRIB Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; 2Nuffield Dept of Anaesthetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; 3Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
Delayed cerebral ischaemia (DCI) is the main cause of mortality following subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). Early brain injury following SAH can lead to reductions in cerebral blood flow (CBF) and may indicate DCI. We investigate the use of pseudo-continuous ASL (pCASL) to measure CBF in the acute phase post SAH. 6 patients were scanned on multiple occasions. A global decrease in CBF was detected on day 3 post SAH in one patient. This perfusion deficit was not detected by routine clinical assessment. The findings suggest measurement of CBF by pCASL can play a role in identifying patients at risk of DCI.