Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Regional cerebral blood flow has previously been studied in patients with idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus with imaging methods that require an intravenous contrast agent or expose the patient to ionizing radiation. The purpose of this study was to assess regional CBF in patients with idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus compared with healthy controls using the noninvasive quantitative arterial spin-labeling MR imaging technique. A secondary aim was to compare the correlation between symptom severity and CBF.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Differences in regional cerebral perfusion between patients with idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus and healthy controls were investigated with pseudocontinuous arterial spin-labeling perfusion MR imaging. Twenty-one consecutive patients with idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus and 21 age- and sex-matched randomly selected healthy controls from the population registry were prospectively included. The controls did not differ from patients with respect to selected vascular risk factors. Twelve different anatomic ROIs were manually drawn on coregistered FLAIR images. The Holm-Bonferroni correction was applied to statistical analyses.
RESULTS
In patients with idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus, perfusion was reduced in the periventricular white matter (P < .001), lentiform nucleus (P < .001), and thalamus (P < .001) compared with controls. Cognitive function in patients correlated with CBF in the periventricular white matter (r = 0.60, P < .01), cerebellum (r = 0.63, P < .01), and pons (r = 0.71, P < .001).
CONCLUSIONS
Using pseudocontinuous arterial spin-labeling, we could confirm findings of a reduced perfusion in the periventricular white matter, basal ganglia, and thalamus in patients with idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus previously observed with other imaging techniques.
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Fellows’ Journal Club
The authors assessed regional CBF in patients with idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus compared with healthy controls using the noninvasive quantitative arterial spin-labeling MR imaging technique. Twenty-one consecutive patients with NPH and 21 age- and sex-matched randomly selected healthy controls from a population registry were prospectively included. In patients with idiopathic NPH, perfusion was reduced in the periventricular white matter,lentiform nucleus, and thalamus compared with controls. They conclude that using pseudocontinuous ASL, they confirmed the findings of reduced perfusion in the periventricular white matter, basal ganglia, and thalamus in patients with idiopathic NPH previously observed with other imaging techniques.