Test-retest reliability of 3D velocity-selective arterial spin labeling for detecting normal variations of cerebral blood flow

• Published in: NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Vol. 271; p. 120039
• Main Authors: Xu, Feng, Liu, Dapeng, Zhu, Dan, Hillis, Argye E., Bakker, Arnold, Soldan, Anja, Albert, Marilyn S., Lin, Doris D.M., Qin, Qin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.05.2023; Elsevier Limited; Elsevier
• Subjects: Arteries; Between-subject variation; Blood flow; Blood pressure; Caffeine; Carbon dioxide; Cerebral blood flow; Cerebrovascular Circulation - physiology; Coefficients of variation; Hematocrit; Humans; Intraclass correlation coefficients; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Neuroimaging; Reproducibility of Results; Scanners; Spin labeling; Spin Labels; Substantia grisea; Test-retest reliability; Variation; Veins & arteries; Velocity; Velocity selective arterial spin labeling; Between-subject variation; Test-retest reliability; Cerebral blood flow; Coefficients of variation; Intraclass correlation coefficients; Velocity selective arterial spin labeling
• ISSN: 1053-8119; 1095-9572; 1095-9572
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120039

•3D velocity selective inversion based arterial spin labeling (VSI-ASL) achieved high reliability during the test-retest CBF measurement for detecting between-subject variations among healthy subjects using absolute CBF.•3D VSI-ASL achieved high reliability during the test-retest CBF measurement for detecting between-region variations among healthy subjects using relative CBF.•Physiology parameters partially explained the variability of CBF across subjects. Velocity-selective inversion (VSI) based velocity-selective arterial spin labeling (VSASL) has been developed to measure cerebral blood flow (CBF) with low susceptibility to the prolonged arterial transit time and high sensitivity to brain perfusion signal. The purpose of this magnetic resonance imaging study is to evaluate the test-retest reliability of a VSI-prepared 3D VSASL protocol with whole-brain coverage to detect baseline CBF variations among cognitively normal participants in different brain regions. Coefficients of variation (CoV) of both absolute and relative CBF across scans or sessions, subjects, and gray matter regions were calculated, and corresponding intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were computed. The higher between-subject CoV of absolute CBF (13.4 ± 2.0%) over within-subject CoV (within-session: 3.8 ± 1.1%; between-session: 4.9 ± 0.9%) yielded moderate to excellent ICC (within-session: 0.88±0.08; between-session: 0.77±0.14) to detect normal variations of individual CBF. The higher between-region CoV of relative CBF (11.4 ± 3.0%) over within-region CoV (within-session: 2.3 ± 0.9%; between-session: 3.3 ± 1.0%) yielded excellent ICC (within-session: 0.92±0.06; between-session: 0.85±0.12) to detect normal variations of regional CBF. Age, blood pressure, end-tidal CO2, and hematocrit partially explained the variability of CBF across subjects. Together these results show excellent test-retest reliability of VSASL to detect both between-subject and between-region variations supporting its clinical utility.