Yet another way to investigate cerebral hypoperfusion

[Sarah Tee]

I’ve posted about a few of these now – obviously a favourite topic of mine since my OCHOS diagnosis.

The lastest one I noticed is called arterial spin labeling perfusion MRI, or ASL MRI.

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/arterial-spin-labelling-mr-perfusion-2

I noted that it can be used to measure hypo- and hyper- perfusion, the latter in relation to migraines. Also, no outside tracer is needed.

Here it is being used to measure hypoperfusion in post-Covid patients in Italy:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-32275-3

I know seated and standing MRI machines exist, but the ASL MRI seems to be done lying down.

Again, this may not have much application in dysautonomia diagnosis, as specialists know pretty well when their patients are not getting enough blood to the head, and if they do need to measure that the transcranial Doppler headset is cheaper and can be easily combined with a tilt table test.

However, supine scans such as this one or the SPECT brain scan could be used in research to see whether our brains are still missing out on blood flow when we are lying down. (Probably yes for many, especially when there has been recent time spent upright.) And in those cases a well-known scan such as an MRI may be useful for insurance or government support claims, as “Patient doesn’t get enough blood flow to their brain” is harder to argue with.

Disclaimer: I’m not an expert on this stuff, just a keen reader on all things dysautonomia related. Your doctor probably won’t be able to order you an ASL MRI scan because the machines are not common and it’s bound to be very expensive.

[RecipeForDisaster]

That is so cool!! I would be very interested.

[MikeO]

2 hours ago, Sarah Tee said:

SPECT brain scan

yeah this one hits home. again there are players that write this stuff up and then don't practice it. NIH write up's just suggest it needs to be further investigated. just my 2 cents worth.