Kim Mouridsen1, Leif stergaard1,
Sren Christensen2, Sune Nrhj Jespersen1
1Center for Functionally
Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus University Hospital,
Aarhus, Denmark; 2Department of Neurology, Royal Melbourne
Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
DSC-MRI has proven very useful for characterizing tissue perfusion indices such as CBF, CBV and MTT. However, whereas CBF and MTT only represent average capillary flow and transit time, important physiological parameters such as flow heterogeneity and oxygen extraction capacity depend on the shape characteristics of the complete distribution of transit times. We demonstrate in a simulation study, that by using a Bayesian estimation approach and a parameterization of the residue function based on a vascular model, shape characteristics of the residue function can be reliably estimated for a range of microvascular flow patterns.