Planning support for selective arterial spin labeling MR imaging methods

A magnetic resonance (MR) device comprising at least one main magnet coil for generating a main magnetic field within an examination volume, a number of gradient coils for generating switched magnetic field gradients in different spatial directions within the examination volume, at least one RF coil for generating RF pulses within the examination volume and/or for receiving MR signals from a body of a patient positioned in the examination volume, a control unit for controlling the temporal succession of RF pulses and switched magnetic field gradients, and a reconstruction unit for reconstructing MR images from the received MR signals, wherein the MR device is configured to:

• acquiring angiographic MR signal data by subjecting the portion of the body to one or more MR angiography scans;
• locating a straight segment of at least one identified blood vessel;
• defining by sequence parameters of an arterial spin labeling (ASL) sequence a labeling area within said straight segment,
• deriving for said straight segment quantitative blood flow parameters from the angiographic MR signal data;
• computing a labeling efficiency of the ASL sequence from the sequence parameters of the ASL sequence and from the quantitative blood flow parameters, the quantitative blood flow parameters comprising at least:
• the vessel diameter of an individual blood vessel and the flow velocity of blood through the blood vessel;
• optimizing the sequence parameters by maximizing the labeling efficiency, wherein the size of the labeling area is adapted on the basis of quantitative information about the vessel diameter;
• acquiring perfusion weighted MR signal data by subjecting the portion of the body to the ASL sequence;
• and
• reconstructing a MR image from the perfusion weighted MR signal data.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing a computer program to be run on a magnetic resonance (MR) device, the computer program comprises instructions that when executed causes the MR device to:

• acquire angiographic MR signal data by performing a MR angiography scan;
• locate a straight segment of at least one identified blood vessel;
• define by sequence parameters of an arterial spin labeling (ASL) sequence a labeling area within said straight segment,
• derive for said straight segment quantitative blood flow parameters from the angiographic MR signal data, the quantitative blood flow parameters comprising at least:
• the vessel diameter of an individual blood vessel and the flow velocity of blood through the blood vessel;
• compute a labeling efficiency of the ASL sequence from the sequence parameters of the ASL sequence and from the quantitative blood flow parameters;
• optimize the sequence parameters by maximizing the labeling efficiency wherein the size of the labeling area is adapted on the basis of quantitative information about the vessel diameter;
• acquire perfusion weighted MR signal data by performing the ASL sequence;
• and
• reconstruct a MR image from the perfusion weighted MR signal data.