A novel AIF tracking method and comparison of DCE-MRI parameters using individual and population-based AIFs in human breast cancer

Quantitative analysis of dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) data requires the accurate determination of the arterial input function (AIF). A novel method for obtaining the AIF is presented here and pharmacokinetic parameters derived from individual and population-based AIFs are then compared. A Philips 3.0 T Achieva MR scanner was used to obtain 20 DCE-MRI data sets from ten breast cancer patients prior to and after one cycle of chemotherapy. Using a semi-automated method to estimate the AIF from the axillary artery, we obtain the AIF for each patient, AIFind, and compute a population-averaged AIF, AIFpop. The extended standard model is used to estimate the physiological parameters using the two types of AIFs. The mean concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) for the AIFs segmented manually and by the proposed AIF tracking approach is 0.96, indicating accurate and automatic tracking of an AIF in DCE-MRI data of the breast is possible. Regarding the kinetic parameters, the CCC values for Ktrans, vp and ve as estimated by AIFind and AIFpop are 0.65, 0.74 and 0.31, respectively, based on the region of interest analysis. The average CCC values for the voxel-by-voxel analysis are 0.76, 0.84 and 0.68 for Ktrans, vp and ve, respectively. This work indicates that Ktrans and vp show good agreement between AIFpop and AIFind while there is a weak agreement on ve.