Perfusion weighted imaging

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.

There are three techniques in wide use to derive one or more perfusion values

Techniques

• 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).