The use of a reference tissue arterial input function with low-temporal-resolution DCE-MRI data

Pharmacokinetic modeling is a promising quantitative analysis technique for cancer diagnosis. However, diagnostic dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) of the breast is commonly performed with low temporal resolution. This limits its clinical utility. We investigated for a range of temporal resolutions whether pharmacokinetic parameter estimation is impacted by the use of data-derived arterial input functions (AIFs), obtained via analysis of dynamic data from a reference tissue, as opposed to the use of a standard AIF, often obtained from the literature. We hypothesized that the first method allows the use of data at lower temporal resolutions than the second method. Test data were obtained by downsampling high-temporal-resolution rodent data via a k-space-based strategy. To fit the basic Tofts model, either the data-derived or the standard AIF was used. The resulting estimates of Ktrans and ve were compared with the standard estimates obtained by using the original data. The deviations in Ktrans and ve, introduced when lowering temporal resolution, were more modest using data-derived AIFs compared with using a standard AIF. Specifically, lowering the resolution from 5 to 60 s, the respective changes in Ktrans were 2% (non-significant) and 18% (significant). Extracting the AIF from a reference tissue enables accurate pharmacokinetic parameter estimation for low-temporal-resolution data.