Three-dimensional acquisition of cerebral blood volume and flow responses during functional stimulation in a single scan

In addition to the BOLD scan, quantitative functional MRI studies require measurement of both cerebral blood volume (CBV) and flow (CBF) dynamics. The ability to detect CBV and CBF responses in a single additional scan would shorten the total scan time and reduce temporal variations. Several approaches for simultaneous CBV and CBF measurement during functional MRI experiments have been proposed in two-dimensional (2D) mode covering one to three slices in one repetition time (TR). Here, we extended the principles from previous work and present a three-dimensional (3D) whole-brain MRI approach that combines the vascular-space-occupancy (VASO) and flow-sensitive alternating inversion recovery (FAIR) arterial spin labeling (ASL) techniques, allowing the measurement of CBV and CBF dynamics, respectively, in a single scan. 3D acquisitions are complicated for such a scan combination as the time to null blood signal during a steady state needs to be known. We estimated this using Bloch simulations and demonstrate that the resulting 3D acquisition can detect activation patterns and relative signal changes of quality comparable to that of the original separate scans. The same was found for temporal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). This approach provides improved acquisition efficiency when both CBV and CBF responses need to be monitored during a functional task.