Feasibility of superficial temporal artery as the input artery for cerebral perfusion CT

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the superficial temporal artery as a surrogate arterial input function, compared with the anterior cerebral artery as the arterial input function, generates accurate perfusion CT maps with significant correlates for cerebral blood flow, cerebral blood volume, and mean transit time.MATERIALS AND METHODS. One hundred perfusion CT examinations performed on 90 patients (51 women and girls, 39 men and boys) were retrospectively reviewed and postprocessed by one investigator using CT perfusion software at a workstation. Color-coded cerebral blood flow, cerebral blood volume, and mean transit time maps were constructed with the superficial temporal artery as a surrogate arterial input function and the anterior cerebral artery as the arterial input function. The effect of input artery choice on mean cerebral blood flow, cerebral blood volume, and mean transit time values in six regions of interest (one region of interest in each anterior cerebral arter...