Precision and Accuracy of Arterial Spin Labeling Perfusion MRI in the Pediatric Population

Varsha Jain¹, Mariel Giannetta¹, Michael Langham¹, Sharon Xie¹, Daniel Licht¹, Joan Giannetta¹, Timothy Roberts², John Detre¹, Hallam Hurt², Felix Wehrli¹, Jiongjiong Wang¹

We evaluated the precision and accuracy of absolute CBF measurements using two arterial spin labeling (ASL) techniques, pulsed ASL (PASL) and pseudo-continuous ASL (pCASL) in a typical developing cohort of 18 healthy children 7 to 17 years old. Longitudinal reproducibility (precision) was assessed by repeated scans 2-4 weeks apart, while accuracy was assessed by comparison with total blood flow volume measured by phase-contrast (PC) MRI at the labeling plane. The results demonstrate excellent precision (ICC=0.62) and accuracy (ICC=0.77) of quantitative CBF measured by pCASL.