title: Atlas-based and DTI-guided quantification of human brain cerebral blood flow: feasibility, quality assurance, spatial heterogeneity and age effects.
abstract: Accurate and noninvasive quantification of regional cerebral blood perfusion (CBF) of the human brain tissue would advance the study of the complex interplay between human brain structure and function, in both health and disease. Despite the plethora of works on CBF in gray matter, a detailed quantitative white matter perfusion atlas has not been presented on healthy adults using the International Consortium for Brain Mapping atlases. In this study, we present a host of assurance measures such as temporal stability, spatial heterogeneity and age effects of regional and global CBF in selected deep, cortical gray matter and white matter tracts identified and quantified using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). We utilized whole brain high-resolution DTI combined with arterial spin labeling to quantify regional CBF on 15 healthy adults aged 23.2-57.1years. We present total brain and regional CBF, corresponding volume, mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy spatial heterogeneity, and dependence on age as additional quality assurance measures to compare with published trends using both MRI and nuclear medicine methods. Total CBF showed a steady decrease with age in gray matter (r=-0.58; P=.03), whereas total CBF of white matter did not significantly change with age (r=0.11; P=.7). This quantitative report offers a preliminary baseline of CBF, volume and DTI measurements for the design of future multicenter and clinical studies utilizing noninvasive perfusion and DT-MRI.
authors.affiliation: Medical School, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging, The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Electronic address: khader.m.hasan@uth.tmc.edu.
authors.forename: Khader M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Hasan
authors.forename: Hiba
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.forename: Mujeeb U
authors.initials: MU
authors.lastname: Shad
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D016477:Artifacts; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D008297:Male; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis; D013781:Texas
keywords: Anterior; Anterior thalamic radiations; CBF; Caudate; Cerebral blood perfusion; Corona radiata; Corpus callosum; DTI; Diffusion tensor imaging; Gray matter; Healthy human brain; Heschl gyrus; Hippocampus; Human brain atlas; ICBM; Posterior thalamic radiations; Putamen; Quantitative MRI; Superior longitudinal fasciculus; Thalamus; White matter; qMRI