Quantifying venous flow dynamics by flow-dephased and flow-rephased functional magnetic resonance imaging

摘要

By combining flow-dephased and flow-rephased diffusion weighting with blood oxygenation level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging, it is possible to study flow dynamics in the venous network of the human brain. Thereby, ballistic flow, which conserves direction and velocity during echo time, is separated from diffusive flow with many changes in direction and velocity. By using this technique with very low diffusion/flow weighting, the mean velocity of ballistic flow was quantified in this study. The result of 10.9±3.2 cm/s strongly indicates that large venous vessels are the source of ballistic flow.