Young Investigator Award Finalist: Use of Cardiac Output to Improve Measurement of Tracer Input Function in Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI

Jeff Lei Zhang¹, Henry Rusinek¹, Louisa Bokacheva¹, Qun Chen¹, Pippa Storey¹, Vivian S. Lee¹

We present a new method for computing AIF from MR arterial signals using a constrained conversion that takes into account the subjects cardiac output. Monte Carlo simulations showed that by using the proposed method, the reproducibility of tumor perfusion parameters and renal function parameters was significantly improved (by at least a factor of three). Dynamic MR renography was repeated for volunteers on three separate days. We obtained similar results. The proposed method may be especially useful for analyzing repeated contrast-enhanced scans such as monitoring tumor therapy or ACE-inhibitor renography.