Critical Concentration of Contrast Agents for Quantification of Enhancement: Another Reason for Dose Reduction

Abbas Nasiraei Moghaddam¹, Reza Habibi¹, Tariq Balawi¹, J. Paul Finn¹

Dose-minimization in CEMRA not only increases the safety measure in clinical practice but also keeps the relation between the image enhancement and contrast agent concentration in the linear range. This linearity is required for applications such as quantitative perfusion imaging and prediction of contrast agents dynamics in MR angiography, using the theory of linear time-invariant systems. In this study we introduce the critical concentration up to which the signal intensity is a linear function of [Gd]. We also show in the routine range of flip angles the obtained enhancement is robust against RF filed inhomogeneity. Experimental verification is also presented.