Characterization of cardiac- and respiratory-driven cerebrospinal fluid motions using correlation mapping with asynchronous 2-dimensional phase contrast technique.

To investigate spatial distribution properties of the cardiac- and respiratory-driven cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) motions in the intracranial space, correlation mapping technique was conducted. Time series of CSF velocity were acquired in 7 healthy subjects of 26±5 years old under by asynchronous 2-dimensional phase contrast (2D-PC) method with 217-msec temporal resolution. The delay time and maximum correlation maps of the cardiac- and respiratory-driven CSF motions demonstrated clear differences in the propagation properties. When the reference region was set at anterior spinal subarachnoid space, the maximum correlation coefficients in the case of 6-sec respiratory period were 0.91±0.05 for cardiac-driven and 0.78±0.08 for respiratory-driven. They were 0.90±0.06 and 0.81±0.06 in the case of 10-sec period. The cardiac- and respiratory CSF motions differently distributed in intracranial space.