Abstract #2186

Simultaneous Quantification of Perfusion, Venous Oxygen Saturation, and Skeletal Muscle T2* in Response to Cuff-Induced Ischemia in the Leg

Erin K. Englund¹, Michael C. Langham¹, Cheng Li¹, Emile R. Mohler², Thomas F. Floyd³, Felix W. Wehrli¹

¹Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; ²Department of Cardiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; ³Department of Anesthesiology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States

A novel method to simultaneously measure perfusion, venous oxygen saturation, and skeletal muscle T₂* using an interleaved pulsed arterial spin labeling and multi-echo GRE sequence, termed PASL/Ox-BOLD, is presented. The technique is assessed in healthy subjects during a series of ischemia reperfusion paradigms. Time course data is analyzed to investigate the kinetics of recovery following cuff-induced ischemia. Results indicate that PASL/Ox-BOLD is capable of faithfully measuring all three parameters at 2 second temporal resolution. The method is also used to investigate a small cohort of peripheral artery disease patients. In these patients, a blunted and delayed hyperemic response is detected.