Pushing Spatiotemporal Limits for 4D Flow MRI and Dynamic MRA in the Brain at Ultra-High Field

The hemodynamic factors responsible for hemorrhagic stroke, resulting in wide variations in the clinical management of underlying vascular lesions, especially when they are found in asymptomatic individuals or individuals with symptoms not related to the disease. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the development of reliable biomarkers based on hemodynamic parameters, which can then enable improvements in risk assessment in patients presenting with these lesions. This need can be met by non-invasive Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques that provide information on high resolution vascular anatomy, visualization of cerebral hemodynamics and quantitative information about blood velocity. However, such techniques as presently employed at 1.5 or 3 Tesla are limited by spatial resolution and prolonged data acquisition times.

The primary goal of this proposal is to overcome these current limitations by exploiting Ultra-High Fields (UHF, i.e. ≥ 7 Tesla (7T)) to attain significantly higher spatial resolution, faster acquisitions and increased lesion conspicuity utilizing

• Qualitative exploration of intracranial blood hemodynamics,
• Quantitative imaging of the spatiotemporally resolved blood velocity vector,
• Derivation of hemodynamic parameters.

Inclusion criteria

• Subjects / Patients between 18 and 75

Exclusion criteria

• Any kind of ferromagnetic implants.
• MR-unsafe non-ferromagnetic implants.
• Cardiac pacemakers.
• A history of shrapnel or shot gun injury.
• A body mass index > 40.
• Severe claustrophobia.
• Tattoos in the head/neck area or permanent makeup.