John David Biglands1, Abdulghani Larghat2,
Sven Plein2, Derek R. Magee3, Roger D. Boyle3,
Aleksandra Radjenovic4,5
1Division of Medical
Physics, University of Leeds, LEEDS, Yorkshire, United Kingdom; 2Division
of Cardiovascular & Neuronal Remodelling, University of Leeds, LEEDS,
Yorkshire, United Kingdom; 3School of Computing, University of
Leeds, LEEDS, Yorkshire, United Kingdom; 4School of Medicine,
University of Leeds, LEEDS, Yorkshire, United Kingdom; 5Academic Section
of Musculoskeletal Disease, University of Leeds, LEEDS, Yorkshire, United
Kingdom
Estimating myocardial blood flow (MBF) from DCE-MRI cardiac perfusion datasets requires contouring of the myocardium. This study aimed to investigate the effect of myocardial contour error on estimated MBF with a view to defining a suitable target accuracy level. MBF values were estimated from concentration vs. time curves from 16 volunteers using manually drawn contours. Erroneous contours were simulated by allowing the manual contours to deviate by up to half the mean myocardial width from the true manual reference. Statistically significant errors werent induced in MBF with contour errors allowed to deviate up to 0.4 of the mean myocardial width.