1Radiology,
Center for Biomedical Imaging, New York University School of Medicine, New
York, United States; 2Radiology, Center for Biomedical Imaging,
New York University School of
Medicine, New York, United States; 3Kimmel Center for Biology and
Medicine at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, New York
University School of Medicine, New York, United States; 4Radiology,
New York University School of Medicine, New York, United States
Intracellular water lifetime can be a useful non-invasive biomarker to probe the viability of cell membrane. However, accurate measurement of intracellular water lifetime remains challenging. In this study, we proposed to use multiple flip angles for DCE-MRI data acquisition in order to improve both accuracy and precision of the estimation. The proposed method was investigated using a numerical simulation study as well as a preclinical study with mouse tumor models. Our preliminary results support that the proposed method can substantially reduce the uncertainty in the measurement of intracellular water lifetime.