Assessing reperfusion with whole-brain arterial spin labeling: a noninvasive alternative to gadolinium.

Background And Purpose: Arterial spin labeling (ASL) is a perfusion imaging technique that does not require gadolinium. The study aimed to assess the reliability of ASL for evaluating reperfusion in acute ischemic stroke in comparison with dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) imaging.

Methods: The study included 24 patients with acute ischemic stroke on admission and 24-hour follow-up ASL and DSC scans.

A pragmatic approach using magnetic resonance imaging to treat ischemic strokes of unknown onset time in a thrombolytic trial.

Background And Purpose: Toward the goal of designing a clinical trial using imaging parameters to treat stroke patients with unknown onset time, we investigated the timing of changes on MRI in patients with well-defined stroke onset.

Methods: Hypothesis-generating (n=85) and confirmatory (n=111) samples were scored by blinded readers for fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) hyperintensity in diffusion-positive regions. Reader-measured signal intensity ratio (SIR) of the lesion to contralateral tissue was compared with SIR measured by coregistration.

Whole-brain arterial spin labeling perfusion MRI in patients with acute stroke.

Background And Purpose: Perfusion MRI can be used to identify patients with acute ischemic stroke who may benefit from reperfusion therapies. The risk of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, however, limits the use of contrast agents. Our objective was to evaluate the ability of arterial spin labeling (ASL), an alternative noninvasive perfusion technique, to detect perfusion deficits compared with dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) perfusion imaging.

Pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling quantifies relative cerebral blood flow in acute stroke.

Background And Purpose: The aim of this study was to test whether arterial spin labeling (ASL) can detect significant differences in relative cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in the core, mismatch, and reverse-mismatch regions, and whether rCBF values measured by ASL in those areas differ from values obtained using dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MRI.

Methods: Acute stroke patients were imaged with diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and perfusion-weighted imaging (ASL and DSC) MRI. An expert reader segmented the ischemic lesion on DWI and the DSC time-to-peak (TTP) maps.