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Dynamic susceptibility contrast perfusion MRI using phase-based venous output functions: comparison with pseudo-continuous arterial spin labelling and assessment of contrast agent concentration in large veins

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Abstract

Objectives

Contrast agent (CA) relaxivities are generally not well established in vivo, and the relationship between frequency/phase shift and magnetic susceptibility might be a useful alternative for CA quantification.

Materials and methods

Twenty volunteers (25–84 years old) were investigated using test–retest pre-bolus dynamic susceptibility-contrast (DSC) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The pre-bolus phase-based venous output function (VOF) time integral was used for arterial input function (AIF) rescaling. Resulting cerebral blood flow (CBF) data for grey matter (GM) were compared with pseudo-continuous arterial spin labelling (ASL). During the main bolus CA passage, the apparent spatial shift (pixel shift) of the superior sagittal sinus (seen in single-shot echo-planar imaging (EPI)) was converted to CA concentration and compared with conventional ΔR2*-based data and with a predicted phase-based VOF from the pre-bolus experiment.

Results

The phase-based pre-bolus VOF resulted in a reasonable inter-individual GM CBF variability (coefficient of variation 28 %). Comparison with ASL CBF values implied a tissue R2*-relaxivity of 32 mM−1 s−1. Pixel-shift data at low concentrations (data not available at peak concentrations) were in reasonable agreement with the predicted phase-based VOF.

Conclusion

Susceptibility-induced phase shifts and pixel shifts are potentially useful for large-vein CA quantification. Previous predictions of a higher R2*-relaxivity in tissue than in blood were supported.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Swedish Research Council (Grants No. 2007-6079, 2010-4454 and 2011-2971), and the Swedish Cancer Society (Grant No. 2012/597).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Radiation Physics, University Hospital, Lund University, SE-22185, Lund, Sweden

    Ronnie Wirestam, Emelie Lind, André Ahlgren, Freddy Ståhlberg & Linda Knutsson

  2. Department of Diagnostic Radiology, University Hospital, Lund University, SE-22185, Lund, Sweden

    Freddy Ståhlberg

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  1. Ronnie Wirestam
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Correspondence to Ronnie Wirestam.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Regional Ethical Review Board in Lund, Sweden. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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10334_2016_567_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Graphical plots of the ΔR2*-vs-C relationships in Eqs. 3 and 4. Two previously published non-linear mathematical representations of experimental ΔR2*-versus-C data at 3 T were used for concentration quantification; Eq. 3 is based on in-vitro measurements in fully oxygenated whole blood [4, 9], and Eq. 4 is derived from in-vivo fitting using venous data [15]. (TIFF 28399 kb)

10334_2016_567_MOESM2_ESM.tif

CA concentration as a function of time in the superior sagittal sinus during a DSC-MRI bolus passage. Data correspond to one measurement in one representative subject. In order to make an unbiased choice of dataset, the measurement with the median pixel-shift-based tail concentration (cf. Fig. 1b) was used. Concentration was calculated from the apparent shift in vessel position (blue diamonds) as well as from ΔR2* values using the arterial blood representation (green squares, Eq. 3) and the venous blood representation (orange triangles, Eq. 4). Data points at baseline (zero concentration) and at peak concentrations (extinguished MRI signal) were excluded. The concentration estimates from the main bolus DSC-MRI experiment are compared with a phase-based VOF predicted from a separate pre-bolus experiment (dashed red curve). (TIFF 42620 kb)

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Wirestam, R., Lind, E., Ahlgren, A. et al. Dynamic susceptibility contrast perfusion MRI using phase-based venous output functions: comparison with pseudo-continuous arterial spin labelling and assessment of contrast agent concentration in large veins. Magn Reson Mater Phy 29, 823–831 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-016-0567-y

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