Increasing temporal resolution of DSC perfusion MRI using the analytic image concept.
OBJECTIVE
Dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI (DSC-MRI) is increasingly being used to evaluate cerebral microcirculation. In this study, the use of the analytic image reconstruction (AIR), with the aim to increase the temporal resolution, is evaluated for DSC-MRI in small animals.


METHODS
Imaging was performed using a T (2)*- weighted sequence to acquire male Lewis rats raw data. Results show that AIR satisfactory reconstructs DSC-MRI while preserving a good reconstruction quality and the image characteristics compared to the full k-space and keyhole reconstructed images. The combination of the choice of the baseline image and the proposed asymmetric acquisition schema enables an increase in temporal resolution, by a factor of four, thus having more sample points for better estimating perfusion parameters.


RESULTS
Computer simulations result in a mean cerebral blood volume of 1.22 that deviates from the full k-space value by -3% and a mean cerebral blood flow of 1.97 deviating from the full k-space value by -3% when the mean transit time did not change. Even if these deviations increase when achieving real acquisitions, AIR still better computes quantitative values than keyhole.


CONCLUSIONS
AIR allows a good reconstruction of the dynamic stage of the image series thus leading to better dynamic effects analysis.
Yankam Njiwa
Josiane
J
Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. njiwa@biomed.ee.ethz.ch
Ratering
David
D
Baltes
Christof
C
Rudin
Markus
M
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003287:Contrast Media; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D003287:Contrast Media