Abstract #1270

Estimation of Water Exchange across the Blood Brain Barrier using Contrast-enhanced ASL

Helen Beaumont¹, Aimee Pearson², Matthias J van Osch³, and Laura M Parkes¹

¹Centre for Imaging Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom, ²Dept of Physics, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom, ³C.J. Gorter Center for High Field MRI, Dept of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, Netherlands

This study investigates the possibility of estimating water exchange across the blood-brain barrier by manipulating the T₁ of blood using a gadolinium-based contrast agent, together with pre- and post-contrast Arterial Spin Labelling measurements. Gadolinium lowers the T₁of blood, but not of tissue, allowing the proportions of label in intra- and extra-vascular tissue to be estimated. A Look-Locker readout was used to measure the temporal evolution of the ASL signal at four doses of contrast agent. Even with T₁of approximately 500ms, an ASL subtraction signal was still detected at an inversion time of 2s, indicating that labelled blood water has exchanged with tissue water.

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