We compared dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI with low (0.04mmol/kg) and high doses (0.2mmol/kg) of contrast agent on C3H mice at 9.4T with 1.5s temporal resolution before and after a bolus injection. The standard Tofts model was used to extract physiological parameters (Ktrans and ve) with arterial input function derived from muscle reference tissue. On average, rate constants were larger for low dose than high dose data. There were strong correlations for Ktrans and ve between low and high dose data. Therefore, low dose may be as effective as a high dose of contrast agent for cancer diagnosis.
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