Medical image analysis
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Medical image analysis · Dec 2013
A theoretical framework for quantifying blood volume flow rate from dynamic angiographic data and application to vessel-encoded arterial spin labeling MRI.
Angiographic methods can provide valuable information on vessel morphology and hemodynamics, but are often qualitative in nature, somewhat limiting their ability for comparison across arteries and subjects. In this work we present a method for quantifying absolute blood volume flow rates within large vessels using dynamic angiographic data. First, a kinetic model incorporating relative blood volume, bolus dispersion and signal attenuation is fitted to the data. ⋯ Excellent agreement was found between the actual and estimated flow rates in the phantom, particularly below 4.5 ml/s, typical of the cerebral vasculature. Flow rates measured in healthy volunteers were generally consistent with values found in the literature. This method is likely to be of use in patients with a variety of cerebrovascular diseases, such as the assessment of collateral flow in patients with steno-occlusive disease or the evaluation of arteriovenous malformations.