Sampling strategy for perfusion quantification using PASL-MRI

Arterial spin labeling (ASL) techniques have been developed over the past decade for mapping blood perfusion using MRI. However, their unique potential for the absolute quantification of perfusion, in a completely non-invasive manner and with greater spatial and temporal resolution than alternative methods, has not yet been fully realized. The main limitations of ASL techniques are their intrinsically low SNR and the complexity of the underlying kinetics. In this study, we investigated different sampling strategies for perfusion quantification based on multi-time point pulsed ASL acquisitions. We found that, for the same number of acquisitions, sampling the kinetics curve over a larger number of different time points yields more stable results than averaging over a limited number of time points.