Greg O. Cron1,
Claire Foottit1, Jean Francois Mercier1, Rebecca
Thornhill1, Viviane Thanh-Van Nguyen2, Ian Cameron1,
Mark E. Schweitzer1, J. J. Shankar1, John Sinclair1,
John Woulfe1, Matthew J. Hogan3, Thanh B. Nguyen1
1The Ottawa
Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; 2University of Montreal; 3Neuroradiology,
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
For quantitative DCE-MRI of human brain tumors, there is no single, widely implemented data acquisition protocol. This lack of standardization makes it difficult to compare different studies, especially between institutions. We propose standardizing the data acquired with any DCE pulse sequence by saving phase data during DCE and by performing Bookend T1 measurements before and after DCE. The phase and bookends enable reliable estimation of the AIF and tissue function, both in terms of absolute concentrations. Initial evaluation has shown that DCE-MRI tumor blood volume values are consistent with equivalent CT perfusion estimates, thus supporting the strategy.