Jin Zhang1, Lindsey Decarlo2,
Robert Schneider3, Sungheon Kim1
1Center for Biomedical
Imaging, Radiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, United States;
2Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York,
NY, United States; 3Microbiology, New York University School of
Medicine, New York, United States
Exchange of water between intracellular and interstitial compartments is an important factor to be considered in estimating physiologically relevant parameters from dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE)-MRI data using a pharmacokinetic model. While it has been demonstrated that intracellular water lifetime (τi) can be estimated from DCE-MRI data, it has not been shown whether the estimated τi can be compared with any other in vivo measurement method. In this study, we measured τi using both DCE-MRI and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) in BALB/c mice with 4T1 mammary carcinoma, and found a good agreement between their estimates of intracellular water lifetime.