Noninvasive Quantification of rCBF Using Positron Emission Tomography

Abstract

This study proposes a new method for the pixel-by-pixel quantification of regional CBF (rCBF) with positron emission tomography and H₂¹⁵O by using a reference tissue region. No arterial blood is required. Simulation studies revealed that the calculation of rCBF was fairly stable provided that the frame time was relatively short compared with total scan time. In practice, calculated CBF images correlated significantly with those obtained with the dynamic/integral method. Because the method accurately detects changes in CBF, it is particularly suitable for brain activation studies.