Catherine Mallik1, Steve Bandula2, Scott Rice2, David Atkinson2, Stuart Taylor2, James Moon3, Shonit Punwani2
1Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, London, United Kingdom; 2UCL Centre for Medical Imaging, University College London Hospital, United Kingdom; 3Imaging Centre, The Heart Hospital, University College London Hospital, London
Changes in the fractional volume of the extravascular, extracellular space (VEES) can be indicative of pathology. Equilibrium MRI (EQ-MRI) is a recently proposed technique to measure VEES, provided a constant concentration is reached between the contrast agent in the blood pool and tissue of interest. A pharmacokinetic model of a bolus and infusion protocol was devised to predict an optimal infusion rate and the time when equilibrium would be reached over a range of Ktrans values incorporating both diseased and healthy tissue. Pilot data collected in a control is indicative that equilibrium was reached in normal liver and muscle tissue.