Tracer kinetic modelling for DCE-MRI quantification of subtle blood–brain barrier permeability

Publication date: 15 January 2016 Source:NeuroImage, Volume 125 Author(s): Anna K. Heye, Michael J. Thrippleton, Paul A. Armitage, Maria del C. Valdés Hernández, Stephen D. Makin, Andreas Glatz, Eleni Sakka, Joanna M. Wardlaw There is evidence that subtle breakdown of the blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a pathophysiological component of several diseases, including cerebral small vessel disease and some dementias. Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) combined with tracer kinetic modelling is widely used for assessing permeability and perfusion in brain tumours and body tissues where contrast agents readily accumulate in the extracellular space. However, in diseases where leakage is subtle, the optimal approach for measuring BBB integrity is likely to differ since the magnitude and rate of enhancement caused by leakage are extremely low; several methods have been reported in the literature, yielding a wide range of parameters even in healthy subjects. We hypothesised that the Patlak model is a suitable approach for measuring low-level BBB permeability with low temporal resolution and high spatial resolution and brain coverage, and that normal levels of scanner instability would influence permeability measurements. DCE-MRI was performed in a cohort of mild stroke patients (n =201) with a range of cerebral small vessel disease severity. We fitted these data to a set of nested tracer kinetic models, ranking their performance according to the Akaike informat...
Source: NeuroImage - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research