Quantitative phase contrast MRI of penetrating arteries in centrum semiovale at 7T.

Pathological changes of penetrating arteries (PA) within the centrum semiovale is an important contributing factor of cerebral small vessel disease (SVD). However, quantitative characterization of the PAs remains challenging due to their sub-voxel sizes. Here, we proposed a Model-based Analysis of Complex Difference images (MACD) of phase contrast MRI capable of measuring the mean velocities (vmean), diameters (D), and volume flow rates (VFR) of PAs without contamination from neighboring static tissues at 7 T.