C. Schwarzbauer et al., QUANTITATIVE MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING OF PERFUSION USING MAGNETIC LABELING OF WATER PROTON SPINS WITHIN THE DETECTION SLICE, Magnetic resonance in medicine, 35(4), 1996, pp. 540-546
A technique for noninvasive quantitative magnetic resonance imaging of
perfusion is presented. It relies on using endogenous water as a free
ly diffusible tracer. Tissue water proton spins are magnetically label
ed by slice-selective inversion, and longitudinal relaxation within th
e slice is detected using a fast gradient echo magnetic resonance imag
ing technique. Due to blood flow, nonexcited spins are washed into the
slice resulting in an acceleration of the longitudinal relaxation pro
cess, Incorporating this phenomenon into the Bloch equation yields an
expression that allows quantification of perfusion on the basis of a s
lice-selective and a nonselective inversion recovery experiment. Based
on this technique, quantitative parameter maps of the regional cerebr
al blood flow (rCBF) were obtained from eight rats. Evaluation of regi
ons of interest within the cerebral hemispheres yielded an average rCB
F value of 104 +/- 21 ml/min/100 g, which increased to 219 +/- 30 ml/m
in/100 g during hypercapnia. The measured rCBF values are in good agre
ement with previously reported literature values.