Med Phys. 2012 Jun;39(6):3615-3616. doi: 10.1118/1.4734678.

SU-D-BRB-06: Comprehensive Population-Averaged Arterial Input Function (AIF) for DCE-MRI of Head and Neck Cancer.

Medical physics

J Onxley, D Yoo, N Muradyan, J MacFall, D Brizel, O Craciunescu

PMID: 28517386 DOI: 10.1118/1.4734678

Abstract

PURPOSE: To generate a composite population-averaged(PA)-AIF for quantitative analysis of DCE-MRI data in head and neck (H&N) patients that is based on the right (RT) and left (LT) carotids, two pre-treatment scans, and one post-treatment scan.

METHODS: Twenty patients were imaged while undergoing concurrent chemoradiation (CRT) for H&N malignancies. The imaging protocol (1) included two baseline scans one week apart (Base1, Base2), and one scan 1 week post-CRT (Post). For each patient and time point, regions of interest (ROIs) in both the RT and LT carotids were drawn on coronal images. The plasma concentration curves of all ROIs were averaged and fit to a bi-exponential decay function to obtain the final PA- AIF (AvgAll). The ROIs were also divided by time point to obtain AvgBasel, AvgBase2, and AvgPost AIFs. The vascular transfer constant for both primary and nodes, K

RESULTS: The plasma parameters for the AvgAll AIF were a1,2=27.1135/17.6486 kg/liter, m 1,2=11.7525/0.2054 min

CONCLUSIONS: A population-averaged AIF for H&N was generated that accounts for differences in RT vs. LT carotids, day-today AIF fluctuations, and treatment-induced AIF changes. It is not necessary to measure a post-treatment AIF to evaluate treatment-induced K

© 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Keywords: Cancer; Data analysis; Medical imaging; Signal generators

Publication Types

• Journal Article