Simultaneous acquisition sequence for improved hepatic pharmacokinetics quantification accuracy (SAHA) for dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI of liver

• Published in: Magnetic resonance in medicine Vol. 79; no. 5; pp. 2629 - 2641
• Main Authors: Ning, Jia, Sun, Yongliang, Xie, Sheng, Zhang, Bida, Huang, Feng, Koken, Peter, Smink, Jouke, Yuan, Chun, Chen, Huijun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.05.2018
• Subjects: Adult; Algorithms; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular - diagnostic imaging; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular - metabolism; Cirrhosis; Computer simulation; Contrast Media - pharmacokinetics; Feasibility studies; Hepatocellular carcinoma; high spatiotemporal resolution; Humans; Image acquisition; Image contrast; Image enhancement; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods; Image quality; improved pharmacokinetics quantification accuracy; In vivo methods and tests; Liver; Liver - diagnostic imaging; Liver - metabolism; Liver cancer; Liver cirrhosis; liver dynamic contrast‐enhanced imaging; Liver Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Liver Neoplasms - metabolism; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Middle Aged; Model accuracy; Parameter estimation; Perfusion; Phantoms, Imaging; Pharmacokinetics; Pharmacology; Spatial discrimination; high spatiotemporal resolution; liver dynamic contrast-enhanced imaging; improved pharmacokinetics quantification accuracy
• ISSN: 0740-3194; 1522-2594; 1522-2594
• DOI: 10.1002/mrm.26915

Purpose To propose a simultaneous acquisition sequence for improved hepatic pharmacokinetics quantification accuracy (SAHA) method for liver dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI. Methods The proposed SAHA simultaneously acquired high temporal‐resolution 2D images for vascular input function extraction using Cartesian sampling and 3D large‐coverage high spatial‐resolution liver dynamic contrast‐enhanced images using golden angle stack‐of‐stars acquisition in an interleaved way. Simulations were conducted to investigate the accuracy of SAHA in pharmacokinetic analysis. A healthy volunteer and three patients with cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma were included in the study to investigate the feasibility of SAHA in vivo. Results Simulation studies showed that SAHA can provide closer results to the true values and lower root mean square error of estimated pharmacokinetic parameters in all of the tested scenarios. The in vivo scans of subjects provided fair image quality of both 2D images for arterial input function and portal venous input function and 3D whole liver images. The in vivo fitting results showed that the perfusion parameters of healthy liver were significantly different from those of cirrhotic liver and HCC. Conclusions The proposed SAHA can provide improved accuracy in pharmacokinetic modeling and is feasible in human liver dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI, suggesting that SAHA is a potential tool for liver dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI. Magn Reson Med 79:2629–2641, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.