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Sijtsema ND, Petit SF, Verduijn GM, Poot DHJ, Warnert EAH, Hoogeman MS, Hernandez-Tamames JA. Multidelay pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling to measure blood flow in the head and neck. NMR IN BIOMEDICINE 2023; 36:e4898. [PMID: 36624621 DOI: 10.1002/nbm.4898] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2022] [Revised: 12/23/2022] [Accepted: 12/28/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Perfusion MRI is promising for the assessment, prediction, and monitoring of radiation toxicity in organs at risk in head and neck cancer. Arterial spin labeling (ASL) may be an attractive alternative for conventional perfusion MRI, that does not require the administration of contrast agents. However, currently, little is known about the characteristics and performance of ASL in healthy tissues in the head and neck region. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to optimize and evaluate multidelay pseudocontinuous ASL (pCASL) for the head and neck region and to explore nominal values and measurement repeatability for the blood flow (BF), and the transit time and T1 values needed for BF quantification in healthy tissues. Twenty healthy volunteers underwent a scan session consisting of four repeats of multidelay pCASL (postlabel delays: 1000, 1632, 2479 ms). Regions of interest were defined in the parotid glands, submandibular glands, tonsils, and the cerebellum (as a reference). Nominal values of BF were calculated as the average over four repeats per volunteer. The repeatability coefficient and within-subject coefficient of repeatability (wCV) of BF were calculated. The effect of T1 (map vs. cohort average) and transit time correction on BF was investigated. The mean BF (± SE) was 55.7 ± 3.1 ml/100 g/min for the parotid glands, 41.2 ± 2.8 ml/100 g/min for the submandibular glands, and 32.3 ± 2.2 ml/100 g/min for the tonsils. The best repeatability was found in the parotid glands (wCV = 13.3%-16.1%), followed by the submandibular glands and tonsils (wCV = 20.0%-24.6%). On average, the effect of T1 and transit time correction on BF was limited, although substantial bias occurred in individual acquisitions. In conclusion, we demonstrated the feasibility of BF measurements in the head and neck region using multidelay pCASL and reported on nominal BF values, BF repeatability, the effect of T1, and transit time in various tissues in the head and neck region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nienke D Sijtsema
- Department of Radiotherapy, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Steven F Petit
- Department of Radiotherapy, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Gerda M Verduijn
- Department of Radiotherapy, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Dirk H J Poot
- Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Esther A H Warnert
- Department of Radiotherapy, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Mischa S Hoogeman
- Department of Radiotherapy, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Department of Medical Physics and Informatics, HollandPTC, Delft, The Netherlands
| | - Juan A Hernandez-Tamames
- Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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Thalman SW, Powell DK, Ubele M, Norris CM, Head E, Lin AL. Brain-Blood Partition Coefficient and Cerebral Blood Flow in Canines Using Calibrated Short TR Recovery (CaSTRR) Correction Method. Front Neurosci 2019; 13:1189. [PMID: 31749679 PMCID: PMC6848028 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2019.01189] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2019] [Accepted: 10/21/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The brain–blood partition coefficient (BBPC) is necessary for quantifying cerebral blood flow (CBF) when using tracer based techniques like arterial spin labeling (ASL). A recent improvement to traditional MRI measurements of BBPC, called calibrated short TR recovery (CaSTRR), has demonstrated a significant reduction in acquisition time for BBPC maps in mice. In this study CaSTRR is applied to a cohort of healthy canines (n = 17, age = 5.0 – 8.0 years) using a protocol suited for application in humans at 3T. The imaging protocol included CaSTRR for BBPC maps, pseudo-continuous ASL for CBF maps, and high resolution anatomical images. The standard CaSTRR method of normalizing BBPC to gadolinium-doped deuterium oxide phantoms was also compared to normalization using hematocrit (Hct) as a proxy value for blood water content. The results show that CaSTRR is able to produce high quality BBPC maps with a 4 min acquisition time. The BBPC maps demonstrate significantly higher BBPC in gray matter (0.83 ± 0.05 mL/g) than in white matter (0.78 ± 0.04 mL/g, p = 0.006). Maps of CBF acquired with pCASL demonstrate a negative correlation between gray matter perfusion and age (p = 0.003). Voxel-wise correction for BBPC is also shown to improve contrast to noise ratio between gray and white matter in CBF maps. A novel aspect of the study was to show that that BBPC measurements can be calculated based on the known Hct of the blood sample placed in scanner. We found a strong correlation (R2 = 0.81 in gray matter, R2 = 0.59 in white matter) established between BBPC maps normalized to the doped phantoms and BBPC maps normalized using Hct. This obviates the need for doped water phantoms which simplifies both the acquisition protocol and the post-processing methods. Together this suggests that CaSTRR represents a feasible, rapid method to account for BBPC variability when quantifying CBF. As canines have been used widely for aging and Alzheimer’s disease studies, the CaSTRR method established in the animals may further improve CBF measurements and advance our understanding of cerebrovascular changes in aging and neurodegeneration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Scott W Thalman
- F. Joseph Halcomb III, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States.,Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
| | - David K Powell
- F. Joseph Halcomb III, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States.,Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Center, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
| | - Margo Ubele
- Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
| | - Christopher M Norris
- Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States.,Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
| | - Elizabeth Head
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States.,University of California Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND), University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Ai-Ling Lin
- F. Joseph Halcomb III, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States.,Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States.,Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States.,Department of Neuroscience, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
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Thalman SW, Powell DK, Lin AL. Novel Calibrated Short TR Recovery (CaSTRR) Method for Brain-Blood Partition Coefficient Correction Enhances Gray-White Matter Contrast in Blood Flow Measurements in Mice. Front Neurosci 2019; 13:308. [PMID: 31001077 PMCID: PMC6454029 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2019.00308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2018] [Accepted: 03/19/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The goal of the study was to develop a novel, rapid Calibrated Short TR Recovery (CaSTRR) method to measure the brain-blood partition coefficient (BBPC) in mice. The BBPC is necessary for quantifying cerebral blood flow (CBF) using tracer-based techniques like arterial spin labeling (ASL), but previous techniques required prohibitively long acquisition times so a constant BBPC equal to 0.9 mL/g is typically used regardless of studied species, condition, or disease. An accelerated method of BBPC correction could improve regional specificity in CBF maps particularly in white matter. Male C57Bl/6N mice (n = 8) were scanned at 7T using CaSTRR to measure BBPC determine regional variability. This technique employs phase-spoiled gradient echo acquisitions with varying repetition times (TRs) to estimate proton density in the brain and a blood sample. Proton density weighted images are then calibrated to a series of phantoms with known concentrations of deuterium to determine BBPC. Pseudo-continuous ASL was also acquired to quantify CBF with and without empirical BBPC correction. Using the CaSTRR technique we demonstrate that, in mice, white matter has a significantly lower BBPC (BBPCwhite = 0.93 ± 0.05 mL/g) than cortical gray matter (BBPCgray = 0.99 ± 0.04 mL/g, p = 0.03), and that when voxel-wise BBPC correction is performed on CBF maps the observed difference in perfusion between gray and white matter is improved by as much as 14%. Our results suggest that BBPC correction is feasible and could be particularly important in future studies of perfusion in white matter pathologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Scott W Thalman
- F. Joseph Halcomb III, MD Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States.,Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
| | - David K Powell
- F. Joseph Halcomb III, MD Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States.,Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Center, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
| | - Ai-Ling Lin
- F. Joseph Halcomb III, MD Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States.,Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Center, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States.,Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States.,Department of Neuroscience, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States
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