Caleb Roberts1, David L. Buckley1, Geoff J. Parker1
1Imaging Science and Biomedical Engineering, School of Cancer and Imaging Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, Greater Manchester, UK
In DCE-MRI studies, an important step in calculating contrast agent concentration is the measurement of T1 in both the tumor tissue and blood AIF. Errors such as blood inflow and B1 inhomogeneity may suggest that use of an assumed T1 is more reliable and would reduce these errors. We test the validity of this approach in a typical 3-D DCE-MRI study employing a multiple flip angle T1 estimate and find that to maximize volume coverage for AIF measurement and to minimize errors in Ktrans, ve and vp a T1 measurement must be used in favor of an assumed value.
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