title: Mapping of arterial transit time by intravascular signal selection.
abstract: The arterial transit time (δa ) is a potentially important physiological parameter which may provide valuable information for the characterization of cerebrovascular diseases. The present study shows that δa can be measured by arterial spin labeling (ASL) applied quasi-continuously in an amplitude-modulated fashion at the human neck. Imaging was performed using short repetition times and excitation flip angles of 90°, which resulted in the selection of an ASL signal of mostly intravascular origin. Model-independent estimates of δa were obtained directly from the temporal shift of the ASL time series. An extended two-compartment perfusion model was developed in order to simulate the basic features of the proposed method and to validate the evaluation procedure. Vascular structures found in human δa maps, such as the circle of Willis or cerebral border zones, hint at the sensitivity of the method to most sizes of arterial vessels. Group-averaged values of δa measured from the carotid bifurcation to the tissue of interest in selected regions of the human brain ranged from 925 ms in the insular cortex to 2000 ms in the thalamic region.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Toralf
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mildner
authors.forename: Karsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hetzer
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Trampel
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Driesel
authors.forename: Harald E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Möller
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013113:Spin Labels; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D013113:Spin Labels
keywords: arterial transit time; border zone regions; dual-coil CASL; flow weighting; intravascular signal; perfusion imaging; perfusion modeling; vascular territories