Reproducibility of reference tissue quantification of dynamic contrast-enhanced data: comparison with a fixed...

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Pharmacokinetics
• Oncology

Background:

• Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DCE-MRI) is crucial for analyzing tumor response to anti-cancer therapies.
• Reproducibility in DCE-MRI quantification is essential to distinguish therapy-induced changes from inherent variability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the reproducibility of reference tissue quantification with a group-averaged plasma curve for DCE-MRI analysis.
• To assess the significance of changes in K(trans) for evaluating anti-cancer drug treatment efficacy.

Main Methods:

• DCE-MRI data analysis using reference tissue quantification.
• Comparison of reproducibility metrics against a published group-averaged plasma uptake curve.
• Calculation of significant K(trans) change thresholds for both methods.

Main Results:

• Reference tissue quantification demonstrated poorer reproducibility for most parameters compared to the group-averaged plasma curve.
• A significant change in K(trans) was defined as >41.8% for reference tissue analysis and >16.4% for the group-averaged curve.
• Reference tissue analysis incorporated inter-visit plasma kinetics variability and yielded comparable vascular input functions to the group-averaged curve.

Conclusions:

• Reference tissue quantification in DCE-MRI offers lower reproducibility than group-averaged plasma curves for assessing anti-cancer drug response.
• Despite lower reproducibility, reference tissue analysis provides a validated method that accounts for patient-specific kinetic variations.