Bradley J. MacIntosh1, Alistair C. Lindsay2, Ilias Kylintireas2, Justin M. Lee2, Matthew D. Robson2, James Kennedy3, Robin P. Choudhury2, Peter Jezzard1
1Clinical Neurology, FMRIB Centre, Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK; 2Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, John Radcliffe; 3Acute Stroke Programme, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, John Radcliffe
Dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) is the clinical-standard perfusion MRI technique for acute ischaemic stroke. Arterial spin labeling (ASL) is a complementary non-invasive perfusion MRI technique and has demonstrated promise in a limited number of clinical ASL studies. The purpose of the current study is test the feasibility of acute multiple-inflow pulsed ASL in a group of minor stroke patients. An automated clustering technique is used to visualise voxels where the arterial transit times are delayed and produce low CBF levels. We argue that ASL has the sensitivity to detect perfusion deficits even in patients that have low impairment.