Patent ID: 9681821
Date: 2017-06-20
CPC Classifications: A61B,G01R

Claim:
1. A method for measuring glymphatic flow in a subject using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, the steps of the method comprising: (a) directing the MRI system to acquire data from a subject using a pulse sequence that induces an image contrast in the acquired data that is associated with glymphatic flow; (b) reconstructing at least one image from the data acquired in step (a); (c) estimating a measure of glymphatic flow from the at least one image reconstructed in step (b); and wherein step (a) includes acquiring diffusion-weighted data from the subject using a pulse sequence that includes diffusion-encoding gradients that are designed to have a b-value sufficient to sensitize the diffusion-weighted data to at least one of perfusion of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and bulk flow of CSF.