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Perfusion weighted imaging
Introduction
MR Perfusion
Perfusion weighted imaging or MR perfusion is a term used to denote a variety of MRI techniques able to give insights into the perfusion of tissues by blood.
Techniques
There are three techniques in wide use to derive one or more perfusion values.
- Dynamic susceptibility contrast imaging (DSC)
- Dynamic contrast enhanced imaging (DCE)
- Arterial spin labelled imaging (ASL)
Derived values
- Time to peak (TTP)
- Mean transit time (MTT)
- Cerebral blood volume (CBV)
- Cerebral blood flow (CBF)
- Negative enhancement integral (NEI)
- K-trans
The main role of perfusion imaging is in evaluation of ischemic conditions (e.g. acute cerebral infarction to determine ischemic penumbra, moya-moya disease to identify vascular reserve) and neoplasms (e.g. identify highest grade component of diffuse astrocytomas, help distinguish glioblastomas form cerebral metastases).