DSC-MRI and ASL-MRI Measured Perfusion in Glioblastoma: Are they Competitive or Complementary?

We evaluated whether arterial spin labeled (ASL) MRI is competitive or complementary to dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MRI measured perfusion in 20 glioblastoma (GBM) patients among 78 imaging sessions. In over 90% of scans, ASL was competitive to DSC. Among these competitive cases, ASL was either equivalent or superior to DSC, making ASL a very attractive alternative to DSC. In some cases (less than 10%), however, ASL and DSC were complementary to each other and combining their strength could provide a more comprehensive information of the whole tumor.