Cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) can be defined as the change in flow in response to a vasoactive agent. Hypercapnia is known to cause global increases in cerebral blood flow (CBF). ASL can provide a quantitative measure of CBF changes. The objective of this research was to determine whether pseudo-continuous ASL (pCASL) with an accelerated 3D readout, combined with breath-hold induced hypercapnia, is a practicable method for evaluating CVR. Results showed that the faster readout provided whole-brain coverage at isotropic resolution and allowed a post-labeling delay long enough to avoid macrovascular signal artifacts, while keeping TR short to sample several points per breath-hold.
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