Arterial spin labeling for cerebral perfusion and angiography

Arterial spin labeling (ASL) is an MRI technique that was first proposed a quarter of a century ago. It offers the prospect of non-invasive quantitative measurement of cerebral perfusion, making it potentially very useful for research and clinical studies, particularly where multiple longitudinal me...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jezzard, P, Chappell, M, Okell, T
Format: Journal article
Published: SAGE Publications 2017
Description
Summary:Arterial spin labeling (ASL) is an MRI technique that was first proposed a quarter of a century ago. It offers the prospect of non-invasive quantitative measurement of cerebral perfusion, making it potentially very useful for research and clinical studies, particularly where multiple longitudinal measurements are required. However, it has suffered from a number of challenges, including a relatively low signal-to-noise ratio, and a confusing number of sequence variants, thus hindering its clinical uptake. Recently, however, there has been a consensus adoption of an accepted acquisition and analysis framework for ASL, and thus a better penetration onto clinical MRI scanners. Here, we review the basic concepts in ASL, and describe the current state-of-the-art acquisition and analysis approaches, and the versatility of the method to perform both quantitative cerebral perfusion measurement, along with quantitative cerebral angiographic measurement.