Whole brain perfusion measurements using arterial spin labeling with multiband acquisition.

PURPOSE: The multiband (MB) excitation and reconstruction technique was both developed and evaluated for accelerated data acquisition of arterial spin labeling (ASL) to cover whole brain perfusion maps. THEORY AND METHODS: MB excitation was incorporated into a pulsed ASL (PASL) technique and compared with conventional single-band excitation PASL from healthy subjects, using a 32-channel head receiver coil at 3 T. The MB de-aliasing performance and effectiveness in perfusion measurement were measured with varying MB acceleration factors and gaps between MB excitations.
RESULTS: The MB PASL perfusion maps were in good agreement with the conventional single-band PASL maps at matched slices. The imaging coverage could be effectively extended with the MB technique by a factor up to 5. A gap as small as 3 cm between MB excitations resulted in a comparable ASL signal loss and temporal-signal-to-noise ratio with single-band PASL.
CONCLUSION: The MB ASL technique is an effective method to evaluate whole brain perfusion because it minimizes the temporal spread of labeled spins across slices, resulting in more accurate perfusion measurements.