Abstract #2228

Quantifying Changes in Breast Tumour Ktrans/ve Parameters When Reducing Temporal Resolution of Contrast Enhanced Dynamic MRI

Pierluigi Di Giovanni¹, Thomas W. Redpath¹, Scott IK Semple², Trevor S. Ahearn¹, Fiona J. Gilbert¹

¹Radiology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK; ²Medical Physics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

The trade off between spatial and temporal resolution plays an important role in DCE-MRI of the breast, especially when quantitative pharmacokinetic parameters are extracted. We show that K^trans is underestimated and v_e remains constant when the imaging temporal resolution is reduced. The error in K^trans increases with a reduction in temporal resolution. Our work suggests that it may be possible to decrease the temporal resolution of a dynamic scan to 20 seconds and still maintain robust estimation of pharmacokinetic parameters. This in turn may allow higher spatial resolution images to be acquired.