Abstract #0710

Relaxed-VERDICT: decoupling relaxation and diffusion for comprehensive microstructure characterization of prostate cancer.

Marco Palombo¹, Saurabh Singh², Hayley Whitaker², Shonit Puwani², Daniel C. Alexander¹, and Eleftheria Panagiotaki¹

¹Centre for Medical Image Computing, Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom, ²Centre for Medical Imaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom

This work presents a comprehensive VERDICT prostate model (relaxed-VERDICT) that includes compartment-specific relaxation effects providing prostate microstructural estimates unbiased by the relaxation properties of the tissue. We compare relaxed-VERDICT with the original VERDICT model and use it to provide estimates of T2 and T1 in benign and tumor prostate tissue. Our results suggest that original VERDICT’s f_ic contrast is mostly driven by diffusion, supporting its use as imaging marker of apparent cellular volume fraction. Relaxed-VERDICT estimates of T1/T2 values are in very good agreement with literature. Finally, we propose a machine learning based processing pipeline that provides ultra-fast quantitative maps.

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