Abstract
Dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) has utility for improving clinical diagnoses of solid tumors, and for evaluating the early responses of anti-angiogenic chemotherapies. The Reference Region Model (RRM) can improve the clinical implementation of DCE-MRI by substituting the contrast enhancement of muscle for the Arterial Input Function that is used in traditional DCE-MRI methodologies. The RRM is typically fitted to experimental results with a non-linear least squares algorithm. This report demonstrates that this algorithm produces inaccurate and imprecise results when DCE-MRI results have low SNR or slow temporal resolution. To overcome this limitation, a linear least-squares algorithm has been derived for the Reference Region Model. This new algorithm improves accuracy and precision of fitting the Reference Region Model to DCE-MRI results, especially for voxel-wise analyses. This linear algorithm is insensitive to injection speeds, and has 300- to 8000-fold faster calculation speed relative to the non-linear algorithm. The linear algorithm produces more accurate results for over a wider range of permeabilities and blood volumes of tumor vasculature. This new algorithm, termed the Linear Reference Region Model, has strong potential to improve clinical DCE-MRI evaluations.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 497-507 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Magnetic Resonance Imaging |
Volume | 31 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 2013 |
Keywords
- Dynamic contrast enhanced MRI
- Gd-DTPA
- Linear models
- Permeability
- Pharmacokinetics
- Reference region model
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biophysics
- Biomedical Engineering
- Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging