I Chi Liu1,
2, Tsong-Hai Lee3, Ching-Chung Liang4, Ho-Ling
Liu1, 5
1Department
of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan,
Taiwan; 2Department of Medical Physics, Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen
Cancer Center, Taipei City, Taiwan; 3Department of Neurology and
Stroke Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College
of Medicine, Taoyuan, Taiwan; 4Department of Obstetrics and
Gynecology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, and Chang Gung University College
of Medicine, Taoyuan, Taiwan; 5Department of Medical Imaging and
Intervention, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan
Accurate estimation of arterial input function (AIF) is crucial for the CBF quantification using DSC-MRI. In small animals, AIF is difficult to identify due to the inevitable partial-volume effects. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of using a venous output function (VOF) for calibrating the AIF in rats, and evaluate the deviation caused by the selection of VOF within sagittal sinus. The results showed that using the ratio of areas under the curve from VOF versus AIF after a gamma-variate fitting yielded the most stable CBF calibration. The uncertainties of resulted CBF values were in the range of 8-28%.