Cerebral Microvascular Perfusion Assessed in Elderly Adults by Spin-Echo Dynamic Susceptibility Contrast MRI at 7 Tesla
Elles P. Elschot,
Walter H. Backes,
Marieke van den Kerkhof,
Alida A. Postma,
Abraham A. Kroon,
Jacobus F. A. Jansen
Affiliations
Elles P. Elschot
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center+, P. Debyelaan 25, P.O. Box 5800, 6202 AZ Maastricht, The Netherlands
Walter H. Backes
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center+, P. Debyelaan 25, P.O. Box 5800, 6202 AZ Maastricht, The Netherlands
Marieke van den Kerkhof
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center+, P. Debyelaan 25, P.O. Box 5800, 6202 AZ Maastricht, The Netherlands
Alida A. Postma
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center+, P. Debyelaan 25, P.O. Box 5800, 6202 AZ Maastricht, The Netherlands
Abraham A. Kroon
CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases, Maastricht University, Minderbroedersberg 4-6, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands
Jacobus F. A. Jansen
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center+, P. Debyelaan 25, P.O. Box 5800, 6202 AZ Maastricht, The Netherlands
Perfusion measures of the total vasculature are commonly derived with gradient-echo (GE) dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MR images, which are acquired during the early passes of a contrast agent. Alternatively, spin-echo (SE) DSC can be used to achieve specific sensitivity to the capillary signal. For an improved contrast-to-noise ratio, ultra-high-field MRI makes this technique more appealing to study cerebral microvascular physiology. Therefore, this study assessed the applicability of SE-DSC MRI at 7 T. Forty-one elderly adults underwent 7 T MRI using a multi-slice SE-EPI DSC sequence. The cerebral blood volume (CBV) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) were determined in the cortical grey matter (CGM) and white matter (WM) and compared to values from the literature. The relation of CBV and CBF with age and sex was investigated. Higher CBV and CBF values were found in CGM compared to WM, whereby the CGM-to-WM ratios depended on the amount of largest vessels excluded from the analysis. CBF was negatively associated with age in the CGM, while no significant association was found with CBV. Both CBV and CBF were higher in women compared to men in both CGM and WM. The current study verifies the possibility of quantifying cerebral microvascular perfusion with SE-DSC MRI at 7 T.
