Feasibility study of exploring a T₁-weighted dynamic contrast-enhanced MR approach for brain perfusion imaging.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the feasibility of T(1) -weighted dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI for the measurement of brain perfusion.


METHODS
Dynamic imaging was performed on a 3.0 Tesla (T) MR scanner by using a rapid spoiled-GRE protocol. T(1) measurement with driven equilibrium single pulse observation of T(1) (DESPOT1) was used to convert the MR signal to tracer concentration. Cerebral perfusion maps were obtained by using an improved gamma-variate model in 10 subjects and compared with those with arterial spin label (ASL) approach.


RESULTS
The cerebral blood volume (CBV) values were calculated as 4.74 ± 1.09 and 2.29 ± 0.58 mL/100 g in gray matter (GM) and whiter matter (WM), respectively. Mean transit time (MTT) values were 6.15 ± 0.59 s in GM and 6.96 ± 0.79 s in WM. The DCE values for GM/WM cerebral blood flow (CBF) were measured as 53.41 ± 9.23 / 25.78 ± 8.91 mL/100 g/min, versus ASL values of 49.05 ± 10.81 / 23.00 ± 5.89 mL/100 g/min for GW/WM. Bland-Altman plot revealed a small difference of CBF between two approaches (mean bias = 3.83 mL/100 g/min, SD = 11.29). There were 6 pairs of samples (5%, 6/120) beyond the 95% limits of agreement. The correlation plots showed that the slop of Y (CBF_(_DCE)) versus X intercept (CBF_(_ASL)) is 0.95 with the intercept of 4.53 mL/100 g/min (r = 0.74; P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
It is feasible to evaluate the cerebral perfusion by using T(1)-weighted DCE-MRI with the improved kinetic model.
Department of Radiology, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, China.
Yudong
Y
Zhang
Jing
J
Wang
Xiaoying
X
Wang
Jue
J
Zhang
Jing
J
Fang
Xuexiang
X
Jiang
D000328:Adult; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology; D001810:Blood Volume / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D003287:Contrast Media; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA; D006801:Humans; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D003287:Contrast Media; C064925:gadodiamide; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA