Reproducibility assessment of a multiple reference tissue method for quantitative dynamic contrast enhanced-MRI...

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Oncology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) is crucial for assessing bone metastases in prostate cancer.
• Accurate estimation of the arterial input function (AIF) is vital for quantitative analysis in DCE-MRI.
• Existing methods for AIF estimation can have limitations in reproducibility and patient-specific accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the Multiple Reference Tissue Method (MRTM) for estimating local tissue arterial input function (AIF) in prostate cancer bone metastases using DCE-MRI.
• To assess the variability and physiological reasonableness of MRTM-derived AIFs.
• To compare the performance of MRTM-derived AIFs with population-based AIFs for kinetic parameter estimation.

Main Methods:

• 16 prostate cancer patients with bone metastases underwent DCE-MRI scans.
• The Multiple Reference Tissue Method (MRTM) was used to estimate local tissue AIF from tumor subregions and muscle.
• Pharmacokinetic modeling was applied using MRTM-derived AIFs to derive kinetic parameters and cardiac output.

Main Results:

• MRTM successfully estimated 32 individual AIFs with considerable intra- and inter-patient variability, comparable to literature values.
• MRTM-derived AIFs resulted in physiologically reasonable cardiac output estimates.
• MRTM-derived AIFs provided better model fits and equally reproducible kinetic parameters compared to population AIFs.
• Using a mean local tissue AIF derived from MRTM further improved the reproducibility of kinetic parameters.

Conclusions:

• The MRTM is a viable method for estimating AIF in DCE-MRI of prostate cancer bone metastases.
• MRTM-derived AIFs enable reproducible quantitative DCE-MRI parameter derivation.
• This method holds potential for standardizing DCE-MRI studies in cancer patients.