Systematic evaluation of velocity-selective arterial spin labeling settings for placental perfusion measurement
Harteveld, Anita A; Hutter, Jana; Franklin, Suzanne L; Jackson, Laurence H; Rutherford, Mary; Hajnal, Joseph V; van Osch, Matthias J P; Bos, Clemens; De Vita, Enrico
(2020) Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, volume 84, issue 4, pp. 1828 - 1843
(Article)
Abstract
PURPOSE: Placental function is key for successful human pregnancies. Perfusion may be a sensitive marker for the in vivo assessment of placental function. Arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI enables noninvasive measurement of tissue perfusion and it was recently suggested that ASL with velocity-selective (VS) labeling could be advantageous in the
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placenta. We systematically evaluated essential VS-ASL sequence parameters to determine optimal settings for efficient placental perfusion measurements. METHODS: Eleven pregnant women were scanned at 3T using VS-ASL with 2D multislice echo planar imaging (EPI)-readout. One reference VS-ASL scan was acquired in all subjects; within subgroups the following parameters were systematically varied: cutoff velocity, velocity encoding direction, and inflow time. Visual evaluation and region of interest analyses were performed to compare perfusion signal differences between acquisitions. RESULTS: In all subjects, a perfusion pattern with clear hyperintense focal regions was observed. Perfusion signal decreased with inflow time and cutoff velocity. Subject-specific dependence on velocity encoding direction was observed. High temporal signal-to-noise ratios with high contrast on the perfusion images between the hyperintense regions and placental tissue were seen at ~1.6 cm/s cutoff velocity and ~1000 ms inflow time. Evaluation of measurements at multiple inflow times revealed differences in blood flow dynamics between placental regions. CONCLUSION: Placental perfusion measurements are feasible at 3T using VS-ASL with 2D multislice EPI-readout. A clear dependence of perfusion signal on VS labeling parameters and inflow time was demonstrated. Whereas multiple parameter combinations may advance the interpretation of placental circulation dynamics, this study provides a basis to select an effective set of parameters for the observation of placenta perfusion natural history and its potential pathological changes.
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Keywords: arterial spin labeling (ASL), magnetic resonance imaging, perfusion, placental function, velocity‐selective arterial spin labeling, velocity-selective arterial spin labeling, Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging, Journal Article
ISSN: 0740-3194
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc.
Note: Funding Information: We thank the midwives, obstetricians, and radiographers who played a key role in obtaining the data sets, and all participating mothers. We also thank MeVis Medical Solutions AG (Bremen, Germany) for providing MeVisLab medical image processing and visualization environment, which was used for image analysis. This work received funding from the NIH (Human Placenta Project - grant 1U01HD087202-01), the Wellcome Trust (Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship, 201374/Z/16/Z), and the EPSRC (grants N018702 and M020533). This work was also supported by the Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Medical Engineering (WT 203148/Z/16/Z). This work is part of the research program Applied and Engineering Sciences with project number 14951, which is (partly) financed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Authors. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
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