Comparison of static and dynamic MRI techniques for the measurement of regional cerebral blood volume

Two different acquisition and processing strategies to determine the region al cerebral blood volume (rCBV) with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are c ompared. The first method is based on the acquisition of the signal time co urse during a bolus administration of a contrast agent (dynamic method). Th e second method evaluates signal changes before and after the contrast agen t injection (static method), assuming the contrast agent remains primarily intravascular in the brain after the first pass. Both methods were applied to the same data sets, acquired with either echoplanar imaging (EPI, n = 18 ) or fast low-angle shot (FLASH, n = 28) techniques. A voxel-by-voxel corre lation between the static and dynamic method yielded a correlation coeffici ent of 0.76 +/- 0.06 for the EPI and 0.71 +/- 0.10 for the FLASH measuremen ts. The static method was less sensitive and showed higher standard deviati ons for rCBV than the dynamic method. With the development of truly intrava scular contrast agents, the static perfusion MRI method, which can be perfo rmed with higher signal-to-noise ratio and higher spatial resolution, may b ecome an alternative to ultra-fast MRI for measuring rCBV. (C) 1999 Wiley-L iss, Inc.