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Abstract #3147

Arterial Input Function Correction and Its Impact on Quantitative DCE-MRI: A Comparison with DCE-CT

Lauren Jean Bains1,2, Josephine H. Naish1,2, David L. Buckley3

1Imaging Science and Biomedical Engineering, School of Cancer and Imaging Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom; 2University of Manchester Biomedical Imaging Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom; 3Division of Medical Physics, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom


Quantitative DCE-MRI benefits from the use of individual patient AIFs, however, accurate MRI-based AIF measurements are complicated by partial volume and inflow effects. We tested two methods of AIF correction based on cardiac output, and evaluated their effects on DCE-MRI tracer kinetic parameter estimates by comparing these estimates with DCE-CT, a modality which is unaffected by many of the artefacts that are problematic in DCE-MRI. Our results show that the use of cardiac output to correct DCE-MRI produces parameter estimates which are significantly closer to DCE-CT with reduced variance; the use of such corrections may significantly benefit DCE-MRI analyses.