ASL Pig Study

Swine brain perfusion is a good model for that of humans due to the similar proportions of gray and white matter. In order to measure swine perfusion, PCASL was implemented using this model. Our investigation identified many parameters of the swine PCASL procedure that required optimization, as follows:The arterial blood velocity was measured to optimize tagging efficiency by adjusting acquisition parameters. Multiple post-labeling delays were collected so that the CBF quantification would be less sensitive to varying transit delays across the brain. Model-specific blood T1 and the M0 ratio of blood to white matter were measured for the quantification of CBF.

Investigators and Personnel:
Megan Johnston
Youngkyoo Jung, PhD

Territory Mapping

PCASL-based VE-ASL methods often require long scan times and complicated clustering algorithms to classify multiple vascular territories. VE-ASL can be performed by encoding blood signal in the Fourier space based on the source location. We have demonstrated that the proposed Fourier encoding method allows quantitative vascular territory mapping without knowledge of accurate locations of feeding arteries or complicated post processing algorithm. In addition, the method is immune to phase errors due to resonance offsets and can be performed within clinically relevant scan time (<4min).

Investigators and Personnel:
Youngkyoo Jung, PhD