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1 Department of Radiology (H.Y., Y.Koshimoto, M.T., C.T., M.M., Y.I.)
2 Biomedical Imaging Research Center (N.S., Y.Y.), Fukui Medical University, 23 Shimoaizuki, Matsuoka, Yoshida, Fukui, 910-11, Japan
3 Department of Radiology, Obama Hospital, Fukui, Japan (Y.Kawashima).
| Abstract |
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Index terms: Blood, flow dynamics, 153.12112, 153.121412, 17.12112, 17.121412 Brain, blood flow, 10.12144, 10.919, 153.919 Brain, infarction, 10.78 Brain, perfusion, 10.12144, 10.919, 153.919 Magnetic resonance (MR), perfusion study, 153.12112
| Introduction |
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Dynamic susceptibility contrast MR imaging has been used to demonstrate cerebral hemodynamics (1417). Half-Fourier rapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement (RARE) (HASTE; Siemens Medical Systems, Iselin, NJ) is a high-speed, heavily T2-weighted sequence with echo train length of 128 that is performed in approximately 12 sec (1822). The change in signal intensity depicted with this sequence in dynamic susceptibility contrast MR imaging is supposed to reflect microvascular hemodynamics (2325). The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of using half-Fourier RARE, dynamic susceptibility contrast MR imaging to depict crossed cerebellar diaschisis in patients after unilateral supratentorial stroke.
| Materials and Methods |
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T2-weighted dynamic susceptibility contrast MR imaging was performed with a half-Fourier RARE sequence (18) (3,000/87; flip angle, 90°; field of view, 210 mm; section thickness, 10 mm; matrix, 128 x 256). A half-Fourier algorithm was used to reconstruct the images (1922). A 20-gauge intravenous needle was inserted into the vein of the right antecubital fossa and maintained for the duration of the study. After three images were obtained, a bolus injection of 0.15 mmol per kilogram of body weight gadopentetate dimeglumine (Magnevist; Schering, Berlin, Germany) was administered and followed by a 20-mL saline solution flush. Imaging time was 3 seconds per image with no interimage delay; a total of 30 images were obtained. The T2-weighted dynamic images were obtained at the same coronal location where the volume of cerebellar hemisphere was the largest (Figure, part a). The participant's head was fixed in the head coil with sponges, and visual inspection revealed no apparent misregistration of the dynamic images.
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R2*), and brain tissue concentration of the contrast agent (C) is expressed by a single exponential expression: Si = S0e-TE(
1/T2*), -ln(Si/S0)/ TE =
R2*,
R2* = k(C), where S0 is the precontrast signal intensity, Si is the signal intensity at time i after injection of gadopentetate dimeglumine, TE is echo time, and k is a tissue-specific constant. The raw signal intensitytime series data are converted to concentration-time data by means of this relationship. The area under the concentration-time curve is proportional to the local blood volume (15). The map of the relative regional cerebellar blood volume was calculated as the sum of the first-pass T2 rate change (
R2) images calculated on a pixel-by-pixel basis (
R2 = -ln(Si/S0)/TE, where i is time. Areas with decreased signal intensity on the relative regional cerebellar blood volume map indicate decreased relative regional cerebellar blood volume, and these images were used for visual evaluation.
More quantitative evaluation of the relative regional cerebellar blood volume was performed by selecting regions of interest in the bilateral cerebellum. We made the region of interest as large as possible in the cerebellar hemisphere (Figure, part b). A gamma variate function was fitted to the
R2 time curves from these regions of interest, and relative regional cerebellar blood volume was determined as the area under the curve. All relative regional cerebellar blood volume values in 36 regions of interest in all participants were obtained by means of reliable gamma variate fitting analysis (r, 0.950.98; P < .001). The paired t test was used to analyze the difference in relative regional cerebellar blood volume of the cerebellar cortex ipsilateral and contralateral to the cerebral lesion in patients and of the right and left cerebellar hemisphere in control subjects. From the relative regional cerebellar blood volume value, we calculated the interhemispheric asymmetry index (IAI) between the contralateral (CL) and the ipsilateral (IL) cerebellar hemisphere in the patients as IAI = (IL - CL)/IL x 100. We also calculated the interhemispheric asymmetry index between the right (R) and left (L) cerebellar hemispheres in control subjects as IAI = |R - L|/(R + L) x 200. In the patients, the crossed cerebellar diaschisis was defined as statistically significant when the value of the interhemispheric asymmetry index exceeded that of the control value (mean ± 2 SD) as derived from the control subjects (8,11).
| Results |
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In eight patients (patients 15 and 79), the relative regional cerebellar blood volume maps showed crossed cerebellar hypoperfusion as relatively dark areas in the contralateral cerebellar hemisphere (affected side) compared with the ipsilateral hemisphere (nonaffected side), with complete agreement between three readers (Figure, part d). In all 10 patients, the relative regional cerebellar blood volume values of the nonaffected cerebellar hemisphere were significantly larger than those of the affected side (P = .0003, 9 df, paired t test). There was no significant difference in relative regional cerebellar blood volume between the right and left cerebellar hemispheres in control subjects (P = .83, 7 df, paired t test). The interhemispheric asymmetry index (mean ± SD) was 4.1 ± 2.3 in control subjects and 16.0 ± 7.9 in patients. Statistically significant asymmetry in relative regional cerebellar blood volume was observed in eight patients (ie, individual interhemispheric asymmetry index was greater than 8.6%, the confidence limit in the control subjects).
| Discussion |
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The most important difference between the half-Fourier RARE sequence and conventional GREbased T2*-weighted dynamic susceptibility contrast MR imaging is that the former reflects volume changes in the capillary vessels. Ogawa et al (27) reported that the diffusion-independent dephasing effects observed at large radii are absent on SE images but not on GRE images. For small vessels, averaging of the field by diffusion is extensive; therefore, the difference between GRE and SE imaging is small. Weisskoff et al (23) and Boxerman et al (24) simulated the microscopic susceptibility variations in SE (T2-weighted) and GRE (T2*-weighted) imaging. Findings with their simulation suggested that SE and GRE imaging are sensitive to different sized blood vessels. Since SE relaxivity peaks for vessel size at or below capillary size, they expected the SE imaging to weight more heavily contrast within the capillary blood volume, whereas blood volume measured with GRE imaging approximates the total blood volume, including supplying arteries and draining veins, as do all the other tomographic blood volume techniques.
T2 weighting may occur strongly within the large vessels, where the large-vessel blood volume is a statistically significant fraction of the voxel volume. However, with T2-weighted dynamic susceptibility contrast MR imaging, the intravascular component from larger vessels is generally neglected because the bulk of the blood volume, which is only 1%3% of the total brain volume, is in small vessels such as the capillaries and venules. Hence, the models are essentially based on extravascular volume. In the present study, this is safely assumed because the regions of interest used for assessment of crossed cerebellar diaschisis are relatively large.
It is well established that the energy-dependent change in neuronal function, particularly in synaptic activity, and blood flow are coupled (28). Changes in regional cerebellar blood flow are known to exceed changes in regional cerebellar blood volume by two to four times (29). This may indicate that change in capillary blood volume is more tightly coupled with change in regional cerebellar blood flow than change in total blood volume. This speculation is reasonable, as the capillaries are responsible for delivery of substrate to tissues. Hence, measurement of regional cerebellar blood volume with half-Fourier RARE may reflect changes in regional cerebellar blood flow, and hence, neuronal activity, more sensitively than changes in total blood volume (23,24). Therefore, we adopted T2-weighted half-Fourier RARE imaging to evaluate functional hemodynamic information in crossed cerebellar diaschisis.
Findings in the present study show a high incidence of crossed cerebellar diaschisis (eight of 10 patients) in unilateral supratentorial stroke. Although the number of patients is small, this finding is consistent with findings in other PET studies. In a PET study of cerebral oxygen consumption by Miura et al (8), 31 of 35 patients with unilateral cerebral infarction in the territory of the middle cerebral artery had crossed cerebellar diaschisis. Further, findings in a PET study of regional cerebellar blood flow by Yamauchi et al (11) showed crossed cerebellar diaschisis in 16 of 24 patients with unilateral supratentorial stroke. Thus, findings in these studies support the effectiveness of half-Fourier RARE dynamic susceptibility contrast MR imaging in depicting crossed cerebellar diaschisis.
The advantage of depicting changes in capillary blood volume rather than in total cerebellar blood volume in crossed cerebellar diaschisis is supported by findings in the study of Yamauchi et al (11). They used PET to evaluate regional cerebellar blood flow, rate of oxygen metabolism, oxygen extraction fraction, and blood volume in the cerebellar cortex in patients with unilateral supratentorial stroke. They found that the cerebellar blood volume decreased, with a normal ratio of cerebellar blood flow to cerebellar blood volume in patients with crossed cerebellar diaschisis. The proportional decrease in cerebellar blood volume and cerebellar blood flow is crucial to differentiating a deafferentiation-induced reduction in cerebellar blood flow from an ischemic condition in morphologically normal brain areas. From these results, they suggested that primary metabolic suppression from deafferentiation causes vasoconstriction, resulting in reduced cerebellar blood volume.
The half-Fourier RARE dynamic susceptibility contrast MR imaging technique has some limitations compared with PET, single photon emission tomography (SPECT), and other perfusion techniques such as single section limitation, relative assessment of the cerebellar blood volume, and contrast agent requirement. Further improvement in the temporal resolution with the half-Fourier RARE technique will enable performance of multisection half-Fourier RARE dynamic susceptibility contrast MR imaging, and the quantitative assessment of cerebellar blood volume to cerebellar blood flow, since this would allow determination of the arterial input function (30). A flow-sensitive nonenhanced perfusion techniquesuch as echo-planar imaging and signal targeting with alternating radio frequency, or EPISTAR (31), or flow-sensitive alternating inversion recovery, or FAIR (32)could assess crossed cerebellar diaschisis as half-Fourier RARE methods do, although no report is yet available, to our knowledge. The former may suffer from the inherent susceptibility artifact particularly in the infratentorial regions, unavailability of quantification, and limitation of the number of sections. The latter may quantify cerebellar blood flow, but the signal-to-noise ratio is relatively low.
In conclusion, findings in the present study showed that the relative regional cerebellar blood volume map obtained with T2-weighted, half-Fourier RARE, dynamic susceptibility contrast MR imaging successfully depicted crossed cerebellar diaschisis in patients with supratentorial stroke. Its clinical feasibility might be confirmed by means of direct comparison with findings at PET or SPECT in a larger population.
| Footnotes |
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Abbreviations: GRE = gradient-echo RARE = rapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement SE = spin-echo
Author contributions: Guarantor of integrity of entire study, H.Y.; study concepts, Y.I.; study design, Y.Y.; definition of intellectual content, H.Y.; literature research, H.Y.; clinical studies, C.T.; experimental studies, H.Y.; data acquisition, H.Y., Y.Kawashima; data analysis, Y.Koshimoto, Y.Kawashima; statistical analysis, M.T.; manuscript preparation and editing, N.S.; manuscript review, M.M.
Received March 5, 1998;
revision requested May 6, 1998; revision received May 28, 1998;
accepted August 10, 1998.
| References |
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