Arterial input function estimation compensating for inflow and partial voluming in dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI

NMR in Biomedicine, vol. 37, pp. e5225

Abstract

Both inflow and the partial volume effect (PVE) are sources of error when measuring the arterial input function (AIF) in dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI. This is relevant, as errors in the AIF can propagate into pharmacokinetic parameter estimations from the DCE data. A method was introduced for flow correction by estimating and compensating the number of the perceived pulse of spins during inflow. We hypothesized that the PVE has an impact on concentration-time curves similar to inflow. Therefore, we aimed to study the efficiency of this method to compensate for both effects simultaneously. We first simulated an AIF with different levels of inflow and PVE contamination. The peak, full width at half-maximum (FWHM), and area under curve (AUC) of the reconstructed AIFs were compared with the true (simulated) AIF. In clinical data, the PVE was included in AIFs artificially by averaging the signal in voxels surrounding a manually selected point in an artery. Subsequently, the artificial partial volume AIFs were corrected and compared with the AIF from the selected point. Additionally, corrected AIFs from the internal carotid artery (ICA), the middle cerebral artery (MCA), and the venous output function (VOF) estimated from the superior sagittal sinus (SSS) were compared. As such, we aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the correction method with different levels of inflow and PVE in clinical data. The simulation data demonstrated that the corrected AIFs had only marginal bias in peak value, FWHM, and AUC. Also, the algorithm yielded highly correlated reconstructed curves over increasingly larger neighbourhoods surrounding selected arterial points in clinical data. Furthermore, AIFs measured from the ICA and MCA produced similar peak height and FWHM, whereas a significantly larger peak and lower FWHM was found compared with the VOF. Our findings indicate that the proposed method has high potential to compensate for PVE and inflow simultaneously. The corrected AIFs could thereby provide a stable input source for DCE analysis.

Authors 8

1. Chih‐Hsien Tseng corresponding Aachen HollandPTC Consortium—Erasmus MC Holland Proton Therapy Centre

   Leiden University Medical Center · Erasmus MC · Holland Particle Therapy Center · Medical Delta · Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Imaging Physics Delft University of Technology Delft the Netherlands

   HollandPTC Consortium—Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Holland Proton Therapy Center, Delft Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden and Delft University of Technology Delft the Netherlands

   Medical Delta Delft the Netherlands

   Department of Imaging Physics, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands

   Medical Delta, Delft, the Netherlands

2. Martijn A. Nagtegaal Aachen C.J. Gorter MRI Center Department of Radiology Leiden University Medical Center Leiden The Netherlands Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center

   Leiden University Medical Center · Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   C.J. Gorter MRI Center, Department of Radiology Leiden University Medical Center Leiden the Netherlands

   Department of Imaging Physics Delft University of Technology Delft the Netherlands

   C.J. Gorter MRI Center, Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands

   Department of Imaging Physics, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands

3. Matthias J.P. van Osch Aachen C.J. Gorter MRI Center Department of Radiology Leiden University Medical Center Leiden The Netherlands HollandPTC Consortium—Erasmus MC Holland Proton Therapy Centre

   Leiden University Medical Center · Erasmus MC · Holland Particle Therapy Center · Medical Delta · Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   C.J. Gorter MRI Center, Department of Radiology Leiden University Medical Center Leiden the Netherlands

   HollandPTC Consortium—Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Holland Proton Therapy Center, Delft Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden and Delft University of Technology Delft the Netherlands

   Medical Delta Delft the Netherlands

   HollandPTC Consortium—Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Holland Proton Therapy Center, Delft Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden and Delft University of Technology Delft the Netherlands

   Medical Delta, Delft, the Netherlands

4. Jaap P.M. Jaspers Aachen HollandPTC Consortium—Erasmus MC Holland Proton Therapy Centre

   Leiden University Medical Center · Erasmus MC · Erasmus MC Cancer Institute · Holland Particle Therapy Center · Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Radiotherapy, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute University Medical Center Rotterdam Rotterdam The Netherlands

   HollandPTC Consortium—Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Holland Proton Therapy Center, Delft Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden and Delft University of Technology Delft the Netherlands

   HollandPTC Consortium—Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Holland Proton Therapy Center, Delft Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden and Delft University of Technology Delft the Netherlands

5. Alejandra Méndèz Romero Aachen HollandPTC Consortium—Erasmus MC Holland Proton Therapy Centre

   Leiden University Medical Center · Erasmus MC · Erasmus MC Cancer Institute · Holland Particle Therapy Center · Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Radiotherapy, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute University Medical Center Rotterdam Rotterdam The Netherlands

   HollandPTC Consortium—Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Holland Proton Therapy Center, Delft Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden and Delft University of Technology Delft the Netherlands

   HollandPTC Consortium—Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Holland Proton Therapy Center, Delft Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden and Delft University of Technology Delft the Netherlands

6. Piotr A. Wielopolski

   Erasmus MC

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam Rotterdam the Netherlands

   Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

7. Marion Smits

   Erasmus MC · Erasmus MC Cancer Institute · Medical Delta

   Affiliation as printed

   Brain Tumour Center, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute University Medical Center Rotterdam Rotterdam the Netherlands

   Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam Rotterdam the Netherlands

   Medical Delta Delft the Netherlands

   Brain Tumour Center, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

   Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

   Medical Delta, Delft, the Netherlands

8. Frans M. Vos Aachen HollandPTC Consortium—Erasmus MC Holland Proton Therapy Centre

   Leiden University Medical Center · Erasmus MC · Holland Particle Therapy Center · Medical Delta · Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Imaging Physics Delft University of Technology Delft the Netherlands

   Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam Rotterdam the Netherlands

   HollandPTC Consortium—Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Holland Proton Therapy Center, Delft Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden and Delft University of Technology Delft the Netherlands

   Medical Delta Delft the Netherlands

   Department of Imaging Physics, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands

   HollandPTC Consortium—Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Holland Proton Therapy Center, Delft Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden and Delft University of Technology Delft the Netherlands

   Medical Delta, Delft, the Netherlands