Aqueduct CSF Flow Measured Objectively with PC-MRI

Anders Whlin¹, Khalid Ambarki¹, Anders Garpebring¹, Jan Malm², Richard Birgander¹, Anders Eklund¹

Aqueductal cerebrospinal fluid flow, measured with motion sensitive phase contrast MRI, is subject to typical imperfections in flow imaging such as partial volume effects and difficulties in lumen delineation. In this study we abandoned graphically represented vessel delineations. Instead we used complex data generated by the PC-MRI in a method with the potential of objective and absolute measurement of CSF velocity and area, without restrictions by matrix resolution. We compared the complex value methodology with conventional manual segmentation for the determination of aqueduct CSF stroke volume in a group of 42 healthy elderly.