Tissue Estimated Vascular Input Functions Improve DCE-MRI Model Fitting

Michael Germuska¹, Sophie Riches¹, David Collins¹, Geoffrey Payne¹, Nandita deSouza¹, Martin Leach¹, Matthew Orton¹

Dynamic contrast enhanced MRI requires an estimate or measurement of the arterial input function (AIF) to model pharmacokinetic behaviour. To reduce the variability in a measured AIF, a population AIF is often used. Alternatively it is possible to obtain an AIF from local tissue. Pharmacokinetic models driven by AIFs extracted from the prostate tissue were compared to a population AIF for 12 prostate cancer patients. Tissue estimated AIFs were found to out performed the population AIF in terms of fitting residuals and variability in KTrans estimates. The results show tissue estimated AIFs can be used to improve DCE-MRI model fitting.