Dual-input tracer kinetic modeling of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI in thoracic malignancies.

This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of fitting dual-input tracer kinetic models to DCE-MRI datasets of thoracic malignancies, including malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) and nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC), by comparing them to single-input (pulmonary or systemic arterial input) tracer kinetic models for the voxel-level analysis within the tumor with respect to goodness-of-fit statistics. Fifteen patients (five MPM, ten NSCLC) underwent DCE-MRI prior to radiotherapy. DCE-MRI data were analyzed using five different single- or dual-input tracer kinetic models: Tofts-Kety (TK), extended TK (ETK), two compartment exchange (2CX), adiabatic approximation to the tissue homogeneity (AATH) and distributed parameter (DP) models. The pulmonary blood flow (BF), blood volume (BV), mean transit time (MTT), permeability-surface area product (PS), fractional interstitial volume (vI ), and volume transfer constant (KTrans ) were calculated for both single- and dual-input models. The pulmonary arterial flow fraction (γ), pulmonary arterial blood flow (BFPA ) and systemic arterial blood flow (BFA ) were additionally calculated for only dual-input models. The competing models were ranked and their Akaike weights were calculated for each voxel according to corrected Akaike information criterion (cAIC). The optimal model was chosen based on the lowest cAIC value. In both types of tumors, all five dual-input models yielded lower cAIC values than their corresponding single-input mo...
Source: Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics - Category: Physics Authors: Tags: J Appl Clin Med Phys Source Type: research