title: Comparison of three-dimensional pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling perfusion imaging with gradient-echo and spin-echo dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the relative cerebral blood flow (CBF) obtained by pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling sequence incorporated with volumetric fast spin-echo readout (3D-PCASL) with those by gradient-echo (GE) and spin-echo (SE) dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MRI.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty patients with various neurological diseases participated in this study. In addition to 3D-PCASL, 15 patients received GE-DSC and the others received SE-DSC imaging on a 3 Tesla scanner. A cortical gray matter (GM) to white matter (WM) and a thalamus (TM) to WM CBF ratio were determined from each perfusion scan. In addition, histograms of relative CBF distributions were obtained from each method for comparison.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant correlations of CBF ratios were found between 3D-PCASL and the two DSC methods (P < 0.05). The 3D-PCASL resulted in GM/WM CBF ratios similar to SE-DSC but significantly smaller than GE-DSC (P = 2.3 × 10(-7) ). TM/WM CBF ratio obtained by 3D-PCASL was significantly smaller than those by GE- and SE-DSC (P = 4.1 × 10(-7) and 1.2 × 10(-6) , respectively). The histogram of relative CBF maps obtained from SE-DSC, after applied spatial smoothing, agreed well with that from 3D-PCASL.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study suggested that perfusion images obtained from 3D-PCASL exhibited significant correlations with DSC-MRI, with greater microvascular weighting like SE-DSC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging and Intervention, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Keelung, Linkou Medical Center, Taiwan; College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Alex M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Feng-Xian
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Ho-Ling
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002536:Cerebral Arteries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D002648:Child; D003287:Contrast Media; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013113:Spin Labels; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media; D013113:Spin Labels
keywords: MRI; arterial spin labeling (ASL); dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC); perfusion; pseudo-continuous ASL (PCASL)