CBF and CBV measurements by USPIO bolus tracking: Reproducibility and comparison with Gd-based values

The authors measured cerebral blood now (CBF) and cerebral blood volume (CB V) by bolus tracking of a novel ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (US PIO) contrast agent (NC100150) and compared absolute and relative perfusion measurements with those obtained by a standard gadolinium-based contrast a gent, They found a linear correlation between the two methods, A dose of 0. 4 mg Fe/kg body weight was found to produce a signal drop similar to that o f a standard 0.2 mmol/kg gadodiamide injection using spin-echo echoplanar i maging (SE-EPI) at 1.0 T. The measurements showed a high degree of reproduc ibility of repeated absolute as well as relative CBF and CBV values, lendin g further hope to the possibility of using magnetic resonance bolus trackin g for routine CBF and CBV measurements. Finally, the authors present their initial experience with high-resolution, non-EPI CBV maps obtained from ste ady-state levels of an intravascular superparamagnetic contrast agent, J. M agn. Reson. Imaging 1999;9:342-347. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.