Assessment of regional cerebral blood flow images with non-diffusible contrast media and angio-CT. Comparison with Xe-CT

Abstract We derived rCBF (ND-rCBF) images using non-diffusible contrast agent time-density curves obtained by monitoring the first pass with an angio-CT sequence. An appropriate elaboration of the sequence of the images led to the generation of vascular volume ( V V ) and regional Arm-Brain circulation time images (rABCT). ND-rCBF was obtained by dividing the V V image by the rABCT image after having rendered them suitable for such an operation. Regional cerebral vascular volume (rCBF) was assessed by standardizing V V values with blood contrast concentration and intracranial circulation time (rICT) by subtracting from the rABCT image the inflow mean time, assessed as the lowest rABCT value of the slice. The ND-rCBF images were qualitatively fairly well comparable with synchronous rCBF (D-rCBF) images obtained with the Xe-CT technique. However quantitation of the values by ROI use gave different results, the ND-rCBF image showing considerably higher values. Using indicator images to analyse the rCBF values at different levels of rCBV and rICT, it was shown that there was a significant relation between the two ND-rCBF and D-rCBF values in the 70–80% pixels with higher rABCT and lower rCBF values.