Inferring origin of vascular supply from tracer arrival timing patterns using bolus tracking MRI

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the potential of novel postprocessing and visualization techniques to distinguish presence of collateral flow using Bolus Tracking MRI. Collateral blood supply is believed to be of paramount importance in acute stroke, yet clinical evaluation is challenging as the gold standard digital subtraction angiography is often not feasible in the acute scenario. Materials and Methods: In principle, bolus arrival delay data contains information about the route of blood supply into tissue and hereby presence of collateral flow patterns. We first examined the potential of current clinical bolus tracking protocols to accurately characterize bolus arrival delay. Using the simulatio..