Quantification of blood-brain barrier water permeability and arterial blood volume with multi-slice multi-delay diffusion-weighted ASL

Abstract

Measurement of changes in blood-brain barrier permeability is important for early diagnosis of brain diseases. In this study, we propose multi-slice multi-delay diffusion-weighted arterial spin labeling for simultaneous acquisition of various quantitative perfusion estimates including the water exchange rate and the permeability surface area product, which are known to be closely related to BBB permeability, and blood perfusion and arterial blood volume. The water exchange rate in 4 Alzheimer patients were smaller than that in 6 normal subjects, opposed to common knowledges on BBB permeability. The proposed approach may work as a new biomarker for early diagnosis of Alzheimer disease.