Quantitative Analysis of Moderate Temporal Resolution DCE-MRI Data from Rapidly Enhancing Breast Tumours: A Robust Pharmacokinetic-Empirical Hybrid Approach

David J. Manton¹, Martin D. Pickles¹, Martin Lowry¹, Lindsay W. Turnbull¹

A Tofts-Kermode-Kety (TKK) pharmacokinetic model with significant blood plasma signal contribution was applied to moderate (~30s) temporal resolution DCE-MRI breast tumour data demonstrating a range of curve types (from Type 1 shallow continuous enhancement to Type 3b instantaneous enhancement with marked wash-out). In Type 3b cases, boot-strap error estimates indicated that the model was ill-conditioned with relative standard deviations for volume parameters exceeding 100%, therefore the separate tissue and plasma curves were analysed empirically using maximum gradient and areas under the curve. When compared to empirical parameters derived from the raw data, TKK empirical parameters demonstrated better discriminatory power.