Citation

Yang FN, Xu S, Spaeth A, Galli O, Zhao K, Fang Z, Basner M, Dinges DF, Detre JA, Rao H. Neuroimage 2019; 193: 157-166.

Affiliation

Laboratory of Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China; Center for Functional Neuroimaging, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Division of Sleep and Chronobiology, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Electronic address: hengyi@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.03.016

PMID

30894335

Abstract

Arterial spin labeled (ASL) perfusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly used to assess regional brain activity and cerebrovascular function in both healthy and clinical populations. ASL perfusion imaging provides a quantitative measure of regional brain activity by determining absolute cerebral blood flow (CBF) values at a resting state or during task performance. However, the comparative reliability of these ASL measures is not well characterized. It is also unclear whether the test-retest reliability of absolute CBF or task-induced CBF change measures would be comparable to the reliability of task performance. In this study, fifteen healthy participants were scanned three times in a strictly controlled in-laboratory study while at rest and during performing a simple and reliable psychomotor vigilance test (PVT). The reliability of absolute CBF and task-induced CBF changes was evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and compared to that of task performance. Absolute CBF showed excellent test-retest reliability across the three scans for both resting and PVT scans. The reliability of regional absolute CBF was comparable to that of behavioral measures of PVT performance, and was slightly higher during PVT scans as compared with resting scans. Task-induced regional CBF changes demonstrated only poor to moderate reliability across three scans. These findings suggest that absolute CBF measures are more reliable than task-induced CBF changes for characterizing regional brain function, especially for longitudinal and clinical studies.

Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Language: en

Keywords

ASL perfusion fMRI; Cerebral blood flow (CBF); Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC); Psychomotor vigilance test (PVT); Reliability