Markus Klarhfer1, Claudia Lenz1, Tanja Haas1, Klaus Scheffler1, Rolf Pohmann2
1Division of Radiological Physics, University of Basel Hospital, Basel, Switzerland; 2MPI for Biological Cybernetics, Tbingen, Germany
The non-invasive quantification of perfusion of human skeletal muscle using arterial spin labeling methods is complicated by low tissue perfusion and low sensitivity of the applied acquisition techniques. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a single-voxel FAIR technique for the quantification of perfusion in the soleus muscle of healthy volunteers during an ischemia/reactive hyperemia paradigm. Averaged over three subjects, a mean resting state perfusion of 24 +/- 7 ml/100g/min and a mean maximum perfusion during hyperemia of 139 +/- 32 ml/100g/min were found.