Feasibility study of exploring a T1-weighted dynamic contrast-enhanced MR approach for brain perfusion imaging

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of T1-weighted dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI for the measurement of brain perfusion. Materials and Methods: Dynamic imaging was performed on a 3.0 Tesla (T) MR scanner by using a rapid spoiled-GRE protocol. T1 measurement with driven equilibrium single pulse observation of T1 (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 (CBFDCE) versus X intercept (CBFASL) is 0.95 with the intercept of 4.53 mL/100 g/min (r = 0.74; P < 0.05). Conclusion: It is feasible to evaluate the cerebral perfusion by using T1-weighted DCE-MRI with the improved kinetic model. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.