Eric M. Bultman1,
Ethan K. Brodsky2, Debra E. Horng3, Pablo Irarrzabal4,
William R. Schelman5, Walter F. Block1, 3,
Scott B. Reeder1, 6
1Biomedical
Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; 2Medical
Physics, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, United States; 3Medical
Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; 4Electrical
Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile; 5Medicine,
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; 6Radiology,
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
Estimating quantitative hepatic perfusion parameters is challenging for several reasons, including the need to acquire data during periods of free breathing. In this work, we demonstrate the feasibility of estimating hepatic perfusion parameters using interrupted DCE-MRI data acquired with a 3D time-resolved radial imaging sequence during sequential breath-holds. Average time-signal curves corresponding to cirrhotic liver and hepatocellular carcinoma ROIs are fitted to a dual-input single-compartment model, and quantitative perfusion parameters are generated. Perfusion characteristics of HCC are shown to be distinctly different from background cirrhotic liver.