Martin Lowry1, David John Manton1,
Martin D. Pickles1, Lindsay W. Turnbull1
1YCR Centre for MR Investigations,
Hull-York Medical School, Hull, East Yorkshire, United Kingdom
The
clinical utility of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) is well
established, but the analysis of data by radiologists can be
time-consuming. Novel visualisation
software, called DIVA+QUADRANT, has been developed which quickly and clearly
indicates those regions within a tumour which display the highest contrast
agent enhancement (uptake) rate and the greatest degree of contrast agent
wash out (signal decay); both well-established indicators of malignancy
following the BIRADS-MRI lexicon. The
software can also be used to monitor response to chemotherapy as it can map
out areas where enhancement and washout rates have decreased, i.e. areas
where vasculature shutdown is occurring.