Claire Foottit1, Greg O. Cron2,
Thanh Binh Nguyen2,3, Matthew J. Hogan2,3, Ian Cameron,
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1Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada; 2Diagnostic Imaging, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; 3University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada
For
quantitative DCE-MRI of the human brain, the Gd concentration-vs-time in the
superior sagittal sinus gives the venous output function (VOF). The VOF can be used to correct errors in
the arterial input function, which is crucial for accurate estimation of
perfusion parameters. For measuring
the VOF, MR signal phase has several advantages over MR signal
magnitude: superior SNR; linearity
with Gd concentration; and insensitivity to blood flow, partial volumes, and
flip angle variations. This work
showed that phased-derived VOFs have improved accuracy and precision compared
with magnitude-derived VOFs for multislice (2D) DCE-MRI studies of the human
brain (n=28).