Quantitative parameter mapping of contrast agent concentration and relaxivity and brain tumor extracellular pH

In clinical magnetic resonance imaging, gadolinium-based contrast agents are commonly used for detecting brain tumors and evaluating the extent of malignancy. We present a new method to evaluate relaxivity (r1) and contrast agent concentration separately in contrast-enhanced lesions using quantitative parameter mapping (QPM). Furthermore, we also aimed to estimate the extracellular pH (pHe) of tumor lesions. We demonstrated that it is possible to evaluate pathophysiological tumor changes due to therapeutic efficacy by measuring r1 in contrast-enhanced lesions. In this study, the primary brain tumor group showed significantly higher r1 values than other brain disease groups (P < 0.001). Moreover, mean pHe value showed a trend for tumor malignancy having a lower pHe value and primary brain tumor having a significantly lower pHe than other brain diseases (P < 0.001). Our results might suggest that QPM can separately quantify r1 and CA concentration in brain tumors and that pHe brain tumor mapping could serve as a tumor biomarker. In conclusion, our method has potential clinical applications for assessing the treatment effects.