Peter Roland Seevinck1,2, Mark J. Bouts1,
Annette van Der Toorn1, Rick Martin Dijkhuizen1
1Biomedical MR Imaging
& Spectroscopy, Image Sciences Institute, University Medical Center
Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands; 2Physics of MRI, Image Sciences Institute,
University Medical center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
Absolute quantification of perfusion parameters critically contributes to the accuracy of characterizing tissue status, predicting lesion outcome, as well as monitoring therapy in experimental and clinical stroke studies. In this work we investigated the use of USPIO for perfusion imaging, instead of Gd-DTPA, which would enable the simultaneous assessment of vascular architecture (e.g. angiogenesis) by ssCE-MRI. The signal time course typical for USPIO bolus tracking motivated us to apply an alternative method for absolute quantification of perfusion parameters, i.e. the maximum slope model. This model was demonstrated to provide realistic values for CBV and CBF in rats in vivo.