Department of Radiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA.
Magn Reson Med. 2024 Aug;92(2):605-617. doi: 10.1002/mrm.30073. Epub 2024 Mar 5.
Directly imaging the function of cerebral perforating arteries could provide valuable insight into the pathology of cerebral small vessel diseases (cSVD). Arterial pulsatility has been identified as a useful biomarker for assessing vascular dysfunction. In this study, we investigate the feasibility and reliability of using dual velocity encoding (VENC) phase-contrast MRI (PC-MRI) to measure the pulsatility of cerebral perforating arteries at 7 T.
Twenty participants, including 12 young volunteers and 8 elder adults, underwent high-resolution 2D PC-MRI scans with VENCs of 20 cm/s and 40 cm/s at 7T. The sensitivity of perforator detection and the reliability of pulsatility measurement of cerebral perforating arteries using dual-VENC PC-MRI were evaluated by comparison with the single-VENC data. The effects of temporal resolution in the PC-MRI acquisition and aging on the pulsatility measurements were investigated.
Compared to the single VENCs, dual-VENC PC-MRI provided improved sensitivity of perforator detection and more reliable pulsatility measurements. Temporal resolution impacted the pulsatility measurements, as decreasing temporal resolution led to an underestimation of pulsatility. Elderly adults had elevated pulsatility in cerebral perforating arteries compared to young adults, but there was no difference in the number of detected perforators between the two age groups.
Dual-VENC PC-MRI is a reliable imaging method for the assessment of pulsatility of cerebral perforating arteries, which could be useful as a potential imaging biomarker of aging and cSVD.
直接对穿支动脉的功能进行成像，可能有助于深入了解脑小血管病（cSVD）的病理生理学。动脉搏动性已被确定为评估血管功能障碍的有用生物标志物。在本研究中，我们探讨了在 7T 下使用双流速编码（VENC）相位对比 MRI（PC-MRI）测量穿支动脉搏动性的可行性和可靠性。
20 名参与者，包括 12 名年轻志愿者和 8 名老年参与者，在 7T 下进行了高分辨率 2D PC-MRI 扫描，VENC 分别为 20cm/s 和 40cm/s。通过与单 VENC 数据比较，评估了双 VENC PC-MRI 检测穿支动脉的敏感性和搏动性测量的可靠性。研究了 PC-MRI 采集的时间分辨率和年龄对搏动性测量的影响。
与单 VENC 相比，双 VENC PC-MRI 提高了穿支动脉检测的敏感性和搏动性测量的可靠性。时间分辨率影响搏动性测量，降低时间分辨率会导致搏动性低估。与年轻成年人相比，老年成年人的脑穿支动脉搏动性增加，但两个年龄组之间检测到的穿支动脉数量没有差异。
双 VENC PC-MRI 是评估脑穿支动脉搏动性的可靠成像方法，可能作为评估衰老和 cSVD 的潜在成像生物标志物。
