Improving CBF MRI Using a Background Suppression in CASL with a Separate Labeling Coil

Qiang Shen¹, Gang Zhu², Timothy Q. Duong¹

Reduction or elimination of the static tissue signal in an arterial spin labeling (ASL) study could improve sensitivity and reproducibility. Such static tissue signal reduction has been achieved with the use of additional inversion pulses after the labeling of arterial spins in single-coil ASL techniques. This work further developed quantitative multislice CBF acquisition for the inversion recovery continuous ASL technique with a separate labeling coil that we proposed previously in rats. We further applied this approach to image focal ischemia in rats. The current IR-cASL scheme offers some unique advantages for rodent studies where the arterial transit time is short.