Pattern Analysis & Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Study of Tumor Angiogenesis

Marco Dominietto¹, Steffi Lehmann¹, Ruth Keist¹, Markus Rudin¹

MRI allows the investigation of tumor angiogenesis-related parameters such as TBV, TBF, VSI and vascular permeability in-vivo. Tumor tissue is highly heterogeneous comprising areas with different degree of vascularization that cannot be studied with the conventional histogram procedure. Pattern analysis, which allow to estimate shape descriptors (as surface area, volume, compactness) and texture estimators (as fractal dimension and lacunarity) is able to invistigate such heterogeneity.