Automatic Extraction of an AIF Using a Novel Blood-Tissue Equilibrium Approach

Rejean Lebel¹, Eric Poulin¹, Martin Lepage¹

We developed a new method that exploits the existence of blood/tissue equilibrium (BTE) points in DCE-MRI to automatically extract the shape of the AIF from the tissue concentration (CT) maps. This method is (1) non invasive, (2) does not require the assumption of Ktrans or ve in a specific tissue, (3) is automated (no user input/ROI tracing) and (4) corresponds to the average AIF as perceived by the voxels inside the volume of interest. In animals, the method is shown to yield accurate AIFs compared to manual blood samples analysed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.