A New Constrained Blind Estimation Algorithm for Determination of the Arterial Input Function Without Reference Tissues

Matthias Christian Schabel¹, Edward V. R. Di Bella¹

We describe an efficient constrained method for blind estimation of the arterial input function that does not require reference tissues or clustering of similar tissue curves. This method has been validated by Monte Carlo simulations and in human subjects with solid tumors, and demonstrates excellent consistency with high-quality measured AIFs as well as reproducibility in longitudinal studies.