Keiko Miyazaki1, James A. d'Arcy1,
Matthew R. Orton1, Dow-Mu Koh2, David J. Collins1,
Martin O. Leach1
1CR-UK & EPSRC Cancer
Imaging Centre, The Institute of Cancer Research & Royal Marsden
Hospital, Sutton, Surrey, United Kingdom; 2Department of
Radiology, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Sutton, Surrey, United Kingdom
This study shows that initial T1 estimations of both lesions and blood can be improved using variable flip angle data acquired at the end of a DCE-MRI study where SNR is increased and long T1s are shortened as a result of contrast agent uptake. Improvements in the quantification of blood T1 values would enable more accurate vascular input function quantification. The reproducibility of initial lesion T1 estimates was also found to be better than for those obtained in the conventional manner. These improvements in the initial T1 estimations will positively affect the quantification of DCE-MRI parameters which are investigated in several clinical settings.