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A method for interleaved acquisition of a vascular input function for dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI in experimental rat tumours
Author(s) -
McIntyre Dominick J. O.,
Ludwig Christian,
Pasan Amit,
Griffiths John R.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
nmr in biomedicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.278
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1099-1492
pISSN - 0952-3480
DOI - 10.1002/nbm.868
Subject(s) - dynamic contrast , electromagnetic coil , contrast (vision) , solenoid , aorta , biomedical engineering , function (biology) , nuclear magnetic resonance , computer science , chemistry , nuclear medicine , magnetic resonance imaging , physics , radiology , medicine , artificial intelligence , cardiology , biology , quantum mechanics , evolutionary biology
Dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI is widely used for the evaluation of the response of experimental rodent tumours to antitumour therapy, particularly for the newly developing antiangiogenic and antivascular agents. However, standard models require a time‐course for the plasma concentration of contrast agent (usually referred to as the arterial input function) to calculate the transfer constant K trans from the dynamic time‐course data. Ideally, the plasma concentration time‐course should be measured during each experiment to obtain the most accurate measure of K trans . This is technically difficult in rodents, so assumed values are generally used. A method is presented here using interleaved acquisitions from a tail coil to obtain the plasma concentration simultaneously with DCE‐MRI data obtained from a solenoid coil around the tumour. The SNR of the resulting vascular input function data is high compared with methods using a volume coil to acquire plasma concentrations from the aorta and vena cava. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.