New algorithm for quantifying vascular changes in dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI independent of absolute T1 values
✍ Scribed by E. Mark Haacke; Cristina L. Filleti; Ramtilak Gattu; Carlo Ciulla; Areen Al-Bashir; Krithivasan Suryanarayanan; Meng Li; Zahid Latif; Zach DelProposto; Vivek Sehgal; Tao Li; Vidya Torquato; Rajesh Kanaparti; Jing Jiang; Jaladhar Neelavalli
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2007
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 247 KB
- Volume
- 58
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0740-3194
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
In this work, we present a new method for predicting changes in tumor vascularity using only one flip angle in dynamic contrast‐enhanced (DCE) imaging. The usual DCE approach finds the tissue initial T~1~ value T~1~(0) prior to injection of a contrast agent. We propose finding changes in the tissue contrast agent uptake characteristics pre‐ and postdrug treatment by fixing T~1~(0). Using both simulations and imaging pre‐ and postadministration of caffeine, we find that the relative change (NR50) in the median of the cumulative distribution (R50) is almost independent of T~1~(0). Fixing T~1~(0) leads to a concentration curve c(t) more robust to the presence of noise than calculating T~1~(0). Consequently, the NR50 for the tumor remains roughly the same as the ideal NR50 when T~1~(0) is exactly known. Further, variations in eating habits are shown to create significant changes in the R50 response for both liver and muscle. In conclusion, analyzing data with fixed T~1~(0) leads to a more stable measure of changes in NR50 and does not require knowledge of T~1~(0). Both caffeine and eating introduce major changes in blood flow that can significantly modify the NR50 and lead to incorrect conclusions regarding drug treatment. Magn Reson Med 58:463–472, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.