Can We Separate the Contributions of Permeability & Diffusion of Contrast Agent? A Simulation Study

Clment Stephan Debacker^1,2, Nicolas Pannetier^1,2, Franck Mauconduit^1,2, Thomas Christen^1,3, Emmanuel Luc Barbier^1,2

There is a growing interest in Dynamic Contrast Enhanced (DCE) MRI to characterize tumor perfusion and microvasculature. Current DCE approaches generally use a global parameter which concatenates two phenomena: permeability and diffusion of the CA in the interstitium. In this study, we evaluate, using numerical simulations, an MR experiment designed to estimate separately these two contributions. Accounting for relaxivity and susceptibility effects, results indicate that permeability measured at short echo times are not sensitive to the diffusion of CA. Moreover, at long echo times, it seems that the diffusion of CA in interstitium could be characterized.