Academic Radiology
Volume 17, Issue 4 , Pages 468-478, April 2010

Sensitivity of Quantitative Metrics Derived from DCE MRI and a Pharmacokinetic Model to Image Quality and Acquisition Parameters

  • Yue Cao, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan, 519 W William Street, Argus Building 1, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
    • Department of Radiology, University of Michigan, 519 W William Street, Argus Building 1, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress correspondence to: Y.C.
    • ,
  • Diana Li, MS

      Affiliations

    • Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, 519 W William Street, Argus Building 1, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
    • ,
  • Zhou Shen, MA

      Affiliations

    • Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan, 519 W William Street, Argus Building 1, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
    • ,
  • Daniel Normolle, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan, 519 W William Street, Argus Building 1, Ann Arbor, MI 48103

Received 27 August 2009; accepted 25 October 2009.

Rationale and Objectives

This study aims to investigate the sensitivity of quantitative metrics derived from dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging and a pharmacokinetic (PK) model to image quality and acquisition parameters.

Materials and Methods

A computer-synthesized DCE model that consisted of a large range of values of Ktrans (transfer constant of a paramagnetic contrast agent from blood to tissue), vp (fractional plasma volume), and kep (back flux rate) was created to test the reliability of quantitative metrics derived from a standard PK model. Effects of the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), total acquisition time, and sampling interval on the stability and bias of the derived metrics were investigated.

Results

The instability and bias of the estimated Ktrans, vp, and kep values increased with sampling interval and decreased with increasing CNR. Total acquisition times had limited influence on the estimations of Ktrans and vp values, but increasing the total acquisition time improved the stability of the estimation of kep values. However, for small kep values, the stability was still poor even with a total acquisition time of 8 minutes. Also, the stability and bias of the estimated values of Ktrans, vp, and kep are interrelated.

Conclusions

Our synthesized DCE model represents perfectly reproduced data except for the presence of Gaussian-distributed random noise. Our analysis suggests minimum changes that may be considered potentially significant in longitudinal therapy assessment studies. Our data are complementary to experimental data from human subjects and phantoms, and provide guidance for the design of image acquisition strategies.

Key Words: DCE MRI, pharmacokinetic model, imaging biomarker, stability, therapy assessment

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 Supported in part by 3 PO1 CA59827, RO1 NS064973, R21 CA113699, and R21 CA126137.

PII: S1076-6332(09)00593-5

doi:10.1016/j.acra.2009.10.021

Academic Radiology
Volume 17, Issue 4 , Pages 468-478, April 2010

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