Arterial spin-labeling in routine clinical practice, part 1: technique and artifacts

AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2008 Aug;29(7):1228-34. doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A1030. Epub 2008 Mar 27.

Abstract

The routine use of arterial spin-labeling (ASL) in a clinical population has led to the depiction of diverse brain pathologic features. Unique challenges in the acquisition, postprocessing, and analysis of cerebral blood flow (CBF) maps are encountered in such a population, and high-quality ASL CBF maps can be generated consistently with attention to quality control and with the use of a dedicated postprocessing pipeline. Familiarity with commonly encountered artifacts can help avoid pitfalls in the interpretation of CBF maps. The purpose of this review was to describe our experience with a heterogeneous collection of ASL perfusion cases with an emphasis on methodology and common artifacts encountered with the technique. In a period of 1 year, more than 3000 pulsed ASL cases were performed as a component of routine clinical brain MR evaluation at both 1.5 and 3T. These ASL studies were analyzed with respect to overall image quality and patterns of perfusion on final gray-scale DICOM images and color Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) CBF maps, and common artifacts and their impact on final image quality were categorized.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Artifacts
  • Blood Flow Velocity / physiology
  • Brain / blood supply*
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Humans
  • Image Enhancement / methods*
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Infant
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Magnetic Resonance Angiography / methods*
  • Reference Values
  • Regional Blood Flow / physiology
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Software Design