Arterial spin labelling MRI of cerebral tumours in rats

Brain perfusion imaging can contribute valuable information in diseases such as cancer and stroke. Arterial spin labelling (ASL) is a non-invasive MRI technique enabling quantification of perfusion by imaging tissue following exchanges of water with magnetically tagged blood. Although ASL has recently been standardised in the clinic1, pre-clinical usage of ASL remains inconsistent between studies. Our aim here was to identify optimal parameters for pre-clinical ASL, taking into account the anatomical and MRI system differences between humans and rodents, for reproducible and accurate perfusion imaging of metastatic brain tumours in rats