Marc S. Ramirez1, Yunyun Chen2, Stephen Y. Lai2, James A. Bankson1
1Imaging Physics, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States; 2Head & Neck Surgery, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States
To promote the use of MRI for preclinical evaluation of experimental cancer therapies, cost should be reduced, scanner access should increase, and more animals should be scanned near a common longitudinal time point. A 20-coil array system permits a combination of multi-animal and parallel imaging accelerations to substantially improve the throughput of a preclinical DCE-MRI study of a thyroid tumor model compared to that which can be achieved with a commercially-available single-mouse hardware setup. A comparison of throughput, image quality, and consistency of resulting pharmacokinetic parameters are described. Furthermore, the logistics of simultaneously preparing and monitoring five animals are discussed.