Functional perfusion imaging using continuous arterial spin labeling with separate labeling and imaging coils at 3 T

Functional perfusion imaging with a separate labeling coil located above the common carotid artery was demonstrated in human volunteers at 3 T. A helmet resonator and a spin-echo echo-planar imaging (EPI) sequence were used for imaging, and a circular surface coil of 6 cm i.d. was employed for labeling. The subjects performed a finger-tapping task. Signal differences between the condition of finger tapping and the resting state were between -0.5% and -1.1% among the subjects. The imaging protocol included a long post-label delay (PLD) to reduce transit time effects. Labeling was applied for all repetitions of the functional run to reduce the sampling interval.