Greg O. Cron1, Claire Foottit2, Thomas E. Yankeelov3, Leonard I. Avruch4, Ian Cameron1,4
1Ottawa Health Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; 2Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; 3Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Nashville, TN, USA; 4The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
For quantitative DCE-MRI of prostate tumors, conventional magnitude-derived arterial input functions (AIFs) may be confounded by flow, T2*, and saturation effects. Previous studies have suggested that measuring changes in phase may be superior to magnitude for estimating the AIF. In this study, phase-derived AIFs were compared to magnitude-derived AIFs by computing Ktrans and ve in a reference tissue (obturator internus muscle, n=9 patients). Phase-derived AIFs resulted in 15% less patient-to-patient variation in computed values of Ktrans and 66% less variation in ve. It is therefore expected that phase-derived AIFs will provide more consistent perfusion measurements in prostate tumors.