Abstract #0106

Assessing Intracranial Vascular Compliance Using Dynamic Arterial Spin Labeling

Lirong Yan¹, Robert Smith¹, Collin Liu², Emily Kilroy¹, Yufen Chen³, Danny J.J. Wang¹

¹Neurology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States; ²Neurology, USC, Los Angeles, CA, United States; ³Radiology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States

Vascular compliance (VC) is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disorders and stroke. In this study, we propose a novel MRI technique for assessing intracranial VC by synchronizing dynamic arterial spin labeling (ASL) scans with systolic and diastolic cardiac phases respectively. VC is estimated as the ratio between changes in arterial blood volume (BV) and changes in blood pressure (BP) between systolic and diastolic phases (i.e., VC=BV/BP). Our results showed that intracranial VC mainly occurs in big arteries, gradually decreases in small arteries and arterioles, and finally disappears in capillaries and tissue. Initial data also showeda decreased VC with aging.