Intracranial Dural Arteriovenous Fistula: Preliminary Report of Arterial Spin Labeling

Purpose: We report the results of applying arterial spin labeling (ASL) to intracranial dural arteriovenous fistula (DAVF). Methods: Sixteen patients with angiographically confirmed DAVF underwent ASL on a clinical 1.5 T or 3 T MR system. ASL was performed by Q2TIPS (second version of quantitative imaging of perfusion by using a single subtraction MRI pulse sequence with thin-slice TI1 periodic saturation) with echo-planar imaging. Draining veins such as dural venous sinus and cortical veins were evaluated on ASL. Results: ASL clearly depicted draining dural venous sinus in all patients with DAVF Borden type I (6/6, 100%) and type II (4/4, 100%). ASL depicted cortical venous reflux in only one patient with DAVF Borden type II (1/4, 25%). ASL depicted drainage directly into cortical veins in all patients with Borden type III (6/6, 100%). Conclusion: Our preliminary study suggests that ASL can depict draining veins in patients with DAVF.