Monitoring Cerebrovascular Reactivity through the Use of Arterial Spin Labeling in Patients with Moyamoya Disease

Purpose To assess arterial spin labeling in the identification of impaired cerebrovascular reactivity in patients with moyamoya disease. Materials and Methods The institutional review board approved this prospective study, and written informed consent was obtained from all patients. A prospective study was conducted in 78 subjects with moyamoya disease (of whom 31 underwent unilateral direct arterial anastomosis). The concordance between the cerebrovascular reactivity index values from arterial spin labeling and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) was assessed by using Bland-Altman analysis, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of arterial spin labeling to depict impaired cerebrovascular reactivity (in which the cerebrovascular reactivity index value is less than 0% on SPECT images). Results The cerebrovascular reactivity index from arterial spin labeling had a lower value than that from SPECT (mean difference, −4.2%). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for arterial spin labeling in the detection of impaired cerebrovascular reactivity was at least 0.85. On the anastomotic side, a significant increase was found between the cerebrovascular reactivity index values on arterial spin labeling images obtained preoperatively and those obtained 6 months after surgery, as well as on SPECT images (mean ± standard deviation values of cerebrovascular reactivity index increased by 5.9% ± 10.9 and 3.0% ± 6.3 for arterial spin labeling and SPECT, respectively). Conclusion Arterial spin labeling has excellent performance in the identification of impaired cerebrovascular reactivity in patients with moyamoya disease, and it has the potential to serve as a noninvasive imaging tool to monitor cerebrovascular reactivity in patients with moyamoya disease. © RSNA, 2015 Online supplemental material is available for this article.