Defining Arterial Input Function (AIF) in DSC-MRI: From Global to Local

Qing Ji¹, John O. Glass¹, Wilburm E. Reddick¹

We propose a novel method to automatically extract local AIF from T2* weighted perfusion MRI. The local AIF was modeled as the convolution of a global AIF with a vascular transport function and incorporated into a pharmacokinetic model to fit the concentration-time course of the image voxels. We examined ten DSC perfusion MRIs from pediatric brain tumor patients and report initial results demonstrating that the proposed method can fit most voxels well and reconstructed local AIF maps not only show the time delay and dispersion of local vascular features, but also the typical cerebral blood flow pattern.