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Purpose: Accurate measurement of cerebrospinal ‰uid (CSF) ‰ow rate elucidates pathophysiological changes in the intracranial environment and is thus clinically useful. We investigated the feasibility of correlation coe‹cient (CC) analysis for extracting CSF lumens in the cerebral aqueduct and cervical subarachnoid space (SAS) to quantify CSF ‰ow rate and net ‰ow from data acquired by phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (PC-MRI).Methods: First, in phantom studies on pulsatile ‰ow using a 1.5-tesla MR imaging system, we investigated the accuracy of CC analysis and used a statistical approach to determine an optimal threshold value for extracting the CSF lumens (CCmin). Second, we performed phantom studies on constant ‰ow with various ‰ow rates to estimate the accuracy of low ‰ow measurement by PC-MRI. Finally, in 6 healthy male volunteers aged 24±2 years, we estimated the CSF lumen areas, net ‰ows, and peak ‰ow rates in the cerebral aqueduct and cervical SAS using CC analysis with the optimal CCmin value determined in phantom studies. Three observers analyzed results to compare reproducibility of CC analysis with that of manual segmentation.Results: The optimal CCmin value for CC analysis was 0.41 for a matrix measuring 256×256. The CSF lumen area extracted by CC analysis was 6.15±2.52 mm 2 , and the net ‰ow in the cerebral aqueduct was 0.74±0.38 mL/min; in the cervical SAS, lumen area was 135.60±17.94 mm 2 and net ‰ow, 12.55±12.67 mL/min. The reproducibility of CSF lumen extraction was better by CC analysis than manual segmentation.Conclusion: CC analysis oŠers a quick and reproducible method for segmenting CSF lumens and calculating CSF ‰ow rate.

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