Mary E. Loveless1,2, Anthony Z. Faranesh3, John C. Gore1,2, Thomas E. Yankeelov1,2
1Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; 2Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; 3Translational Medicine Branch, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NIH), Bethesda, MA, USA
This study interrogates error propagation in reference region models used in DCE-MRI by examining the variation in reference region parameter assignment. Differences in these required a priori values can lead to errors in estimated target-of-interest parameters. Simulations found that initial reference region parameters, including the vascular term, can vary by ~ 38% and still achieve <25% target parameter error. Experiments are currently ongoing to test this hypothesis.