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Review
. 2010;20(3):871-80.
doi: 10.3233/JAD-2010-091699.

Arterial spin labeling blood flow MRI: its role in the early characterization of Alzheimer's disease

David C Alsop  1 , Weiying Dai, Murray Grossman, John A Detre
Affiliations
Review

Arterial spin labeling blood flow MRI: its role in the early characterization of Alzheimer's disease

David C Alsop et al. J Alzheimers Dis. 2010.

Abstract

Arterial spin labeling (ASL) enables the noninvasive, quantitative imaging of cerebral blood flow using standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment. Because it requires no contrast injection, ASL can add resting functional information to MRI studies measuring atrophy and signs of ischemic injury. Key features of ASL technology that may affect studies in Alzheimer's disease are described. The existing literature describing ASL blood flow imaging applied to Alzheimer's disease and related dementia is reviewed, and the potential role of ASL in treatment and prevention studies of early Alzheimer's disease is discussed.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Average of ASL blood flow images from 24 patients diagnosed with mild to moderate AD, top two rows, compared with images from 17 age-matched controls, bottom two rows. Images were aligned to a standard atlas before averaging. These images, from a dataset analyzed more rigorously elsewhere [29], are shown to illustrate achievable image quality. Example regions with significantly decreased flow are indicated with arrows.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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