title: A qualitative comparison of arterial spin labelling and dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI in 52 children with a range of neurological conditions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the usefulness of arterial spin labelling (ASL) compared with dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) perfusion MRI for typical paediatric neuroimaging applications at 1.5 T.
  
  
  METHODS
  52 children (age: 4 months-17 years) with a variety of neurological disorders were scanned using three-dimensional ASL and echoplanar imaging DSC sequences. All images were reviewed by an experienced neuroradiologist; image quality was recorded as "good", "acceptable" or "poor" and diagnostic value was noted as being "greater", "similar" or "less" for ASL when compared with DSC.
  
  
  RESULTS
  ASL cerebral blood flow (CBF) images were judged to be acceptable in 89% of cases, poor in 11% of cases and good in 0% of cases, while DSC CBF images were acceptable in 88% of cases, poor in 12% of cases and good in 0% of cases. ASL images were judged to have better diagnostic value than DSC images in 28% of cases, about the same in 58% of cases and worse in 14% of cases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this study suggest that ASL offers a realistic alternative to DSC in the paediatric setting for the majority of cases encountered in this study. However, there are some situations where DSC outperforms ASL; so, care is required to choose the most appropriate technique for the pathology under investigation. A larger study is required to corroborate these preliminary findings. Advances in knowledge: ASL is a relatively new perfusion imaging technique whose use has not been explored extensively in the paediatric setting. This work is a preliminary study to evaluate its usefulness in paediatric neuroimaging.
authors.affiliation: 1 Academic Unit of Radiology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Armitage
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Radiology, Sheffield Children's Hospital, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Skipper
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Radiology, Sheffield Children's Hospital, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: Daniel J A
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Connolly
authors.affiliation: 1 Academic Unit of Radiology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: Paul D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Griffiths
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D002533:Cerebral Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003287:Contrast Media; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D007223:Infant; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D010372:Pediatrics; D055420:Perfusion Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D036301:Qualitative Research; D013113:Spin Labels
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media; D013113:Spin Labels