Combined angiography and perfusion using radial imaging and arterial spin labeling.

PURPOSE: To demonstrate the feasibility of a novel noninvasive MRI technique for the comprehensive evaluation of blood flow to the brain: combined angiography and perfusion using radial imaging and arterial spin labeling (CAPRIA). METHODS: In the CAPRIA pulse sequence, blood labeled with a pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling pulse train is continuously imaged as it flows through the arterial tree and into the brain tissue using a golden ratio radial readout. From a single raw data set, this flexible imaging approach allows the reconstruction of both high spatial/temporal resolution angiographic images with a high undersampling factor and low spatial/temporal resolution perfusion images with a low undersampling factor. The sparse and high SNR nature of angiographic images ensures that radial undersampling artifacts are relatively benign, even when using a simple regridding image reconstruction. Pulse sequence parameters were optimized through sampling efficiency calculations and the numerical evaluation of modified pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling signal models. A comparison was made against conventional pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling angiographic and perfusion acquisitions. RESULTS: 2D CAPRIA data in healthy volunteers demonstrated the feasibility of this approach, with good vessel visualization in the angiographic images and clear tissue perfusion signal when reconstructed at 108-ms and 252-ms temporal resolution, respectively. Images were qualitatively similar to those from conventional acquisitions, but CAPRIA had significantly higher SNR efficiency (48% improvement on average, P = 0.02). CONCLUSION: The CAPRIA technique shows potential for the efficient evaluation of both macrovascular blood flow and tissue perfusion within a single scan, with potential applications in a range of cerebrovascular diseases.