The Potential Utility of Arterial Spin Labeling in Detecting and Localizing Posterior Circulation Occlusions in Every Day Practice: A Clinical Report of Selected Cases

Arterial spin labeling (ASL) is a non-contrast, non-invasive method used for the evaluation of cerebral perfusion, which is now increasingly utilized in everyday clinical practice. As a marker of cerebral blood flow at the capillary level, it has particular utility in stroke assessment. One rarer stroke subtype with non-specific symptomatology that can lead to significant morbidity is the posterior circulation (PC) infarct. As with the more common anterior circulation infarcts, ASL has shown benefit in PC infarcts as well, but has not been extensively explored in the literature nor been directly compared to bolus perfusion techniques. This clinical report of selected cases shows the utility of ASL in localization and detection of PC infarcts both in conjunction with and in the absence of bolus perfusion.