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Development of fast multi‐slice apparent T 1 mapping for improved arterial spin labeling MRI measurement of cerebral blood flow
Author(s) -
Ji Yang,
Lu Dongshuang,
Jiang Yinghua,
Wang Xiaoying,
Meng Yuguang,
Sun Phillip Zhe
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
magnetic resonance in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.696
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1522-2594
pISSN - 0740-3194
DOI - 10.1002/mrm.28510
Subject(s) - cerebral blood flow , arterial spin labeling , reproducibility , nuclear medicine , magnetic resonance imaging , perfusion , medicine , nuclear magnetic resonance , perfusion scanning , chemistry , cardiology , radiology , physics , chromatography
Purpose To develop fast multi‐slice apparent T 1 ( T 1app ) mapping for accurate cerebral blood flow (CBF) quantification with arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI. Methods Fast multi‐slice T 1app was measured using a modified inversion recovery echo planar imaging (EPI) sequence with simultaneous application of ASL tagging radiofrequency (RF) and gradient pulses. The fast multi‐slice T 1app measurement was compared with the single‐slice T 1app imaging approach, repeated per slice. CBF was assessed in healthy adult Wistar rats (N = 5) and rats with acute stroke 24 hours after a transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (N = 5). Results The fast multi‐slice T 1app measurement was in good agreement with that of a single‐slice T 1app imaging approach (Lin's concordance correlation coefficient = 0.92). CBF calculated using T 1app reasonably accounted for the finite labeling RF duration, whereas the routine T 1 ‐normalized ASL MRI underestimated the CBF, particularly at short labeling durations. In acute stroke rats, the labeling time and the CBF difference (ΔCBF) between the contralateral normal area and the ischemic lesion were significantly correlated when using T 1 ‐normalized perfusion calculation ( R = 0.844, P = .035). In comparison, T 1app ‐normalized ΔCBF had little labeling time dependence based on the linear regression equation of ΔCBF = −0.0247*τ + 1.579 mL/g/min ( R = −0.352, P = .494). Conclusions Our study found fast multi‐slice T 1app imaging improves the accuracy and reproducibility of CBF measurement.