title: In vivo evaluation of femoral blood flow measured with magnetic resonance.
abstract: Quantitative measurements of blood flow based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using conventional multiple spin echo sequences were evaluated in vivo in healthy young volunteers. Blood flow was measured using MRI in the femoral vein. The initial slope of the multiple spin echo decay curve, corrected for the T2 decay of non-flowing blood was used to calculate the blood flow. As a reference, the blood flow in the femoral artery was measured simultaneously with an invasive indicator dilution technique. T2 of non-flowing blood was measured in vivo in popliteal veins during regional circulatory arrest. The mean T2 of non-flowing blood was found to be 105 +/- 31 ms. The femoral blood flow ranged between 0 and 643 ml/min measured with MRI and between 280 and 531 ml/min measured by the indicator dilution technique. There was thus poor agreement between the two methods. The results indicate that in vivo blood flow measurements made with MRI based on wash-out effects, commonly used in multiple spin echo imaging, do not give reliable absolute values for blood flow in the femoral artery or vein.
authors.affiliation: Department of Magnetic Resonance, Hvidovre Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Henriksen
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ståhlberg
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thomsen
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Møgelvang
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Persson
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000098:blood supply; D000328:Adult; D005263:Femoral Artery / Q000502:physiology; D005268:Femoral Vein / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009132:Muscles / Q000098:blood supply; D011152:Popliteal Vein / Q000502:physiology; D012016:Reference Values; D012039:Regional Blood Flow