Simulation Studies of Impulse Response Functions for DCEMRI: Comparing a New Mathematical Model with a Single Exponential Decay Function in the Two-Compartment Model.

Xiaobing Fan¹, Gregory S. Karczmar¹

Ideally one would like to study contrast media uptake and washout from the tumor itself, without systematic errors or bias caused by the use of inappropriate physiologic models and incorrect arterial input function in dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCEMRI). The impulse response function (IRF) in the conventional two-compartment model assumes a single decaying exponential that may not valid for tumor. Therefore, we employed a new IRF with bi-exponential decay; this may have greater potential as a diagnostic method for cancer using DCEMRI. The proposed IRF is tested with both simulations as well as data from a rodent cancer model.