Potential of Perfusion and Diffusion IVIM MRI in a Rat Brain 9L Glioma Model

Mami Iima¹, ², Olivier Reynaud¹, Tomokazu Tsurugizawa¹, Luisa Ciobanu¹, Jing-Rebecca Li¹, Franoise Geffroy¹, Boucif Djemai¹, Masaki Umehana³, Denis Le Bihan¹

IVIM MRI images were acquired in 14 rats implanted with a 9L glioma model using a 17.2T MRI scanner. IVIM maps clearly highlighted areas with high and low fraction perfusion within tumors which were generally heterogeneous, as confirmed by histology. Perfusion parameters could easily be obtained using a 2-steps processing approach. Diffusion parameters obtained using a biexponential 2-compartments diffusion model, such as ADCo and fslow, additionally provided information in tissue structure. However, the diffusion parameters estimated from the biexponential model were found to be very sensitive to noise and to the initial values used for data fitting.