Marcelino Bernardo1,2, Yuxi Pang3,4, Baris Turkbey2, Raphael Alford2, Vijay Shah2, Ahmed M. Gharib5, Peter Choyke2
1Imaging Physics, SAIC-Frederick, Inc., Frederick, MD, USA; 2Molecular Imaging Program, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA; 3Philips Medical Systems, Cleveland, OH, USA; 4Molecular Imaging Program,, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA; 5NIDDK, Bethesda, MD, USA
To overcome blood inflow effect in accurately determining the arterial input function from the femoral artery in prostate DCE-MRI, we have performed a preliminary study on two patients to evaluate four-fold slice oversampling with SENSE using the 16-channel anterior half of a 32-channel cardiac array in combination with an endorectal coil. The thicker excitation slab provides for a more accurate determination of the contrast agent concentration in the blood which should provide for more consistent pharmacokinetic parameters across patients but there is a factor of two loss in temporal resolution. The addition of the posterior half and a dual element endorectal coil should improve SENSE performance.