Quantification of perfusion and permeability in breast tumors with a deconvolution‐based analysis of second‐bolus T1‐DCE data

Abstract

Purpose:To test the feasibility of using a second-bolus injection, added to a routine breast MRI examination, to measure regional perfusion and permeability in human breast tumors. Materials and Methods:In 30 patients with breast tumors, first a routine whole-breast T1-DCE sequence was applied, and the slice where the lesion enhanced maximally was located. At that slice position, T1-weighted MR images were acquired at 0.3-second resolution using a second-bolus dynamic inversion recovery (IR)-prepared turbo field echo (TFE) sequence. A pixel-by-pixel model-independent deconvolution of the relative signal enhancement was performed to estimate the tumor blood flow (TBF), tumor volume of distribution (TVD), mean transit time (MTT), extraction flow product (EF), and extraction fraction (E). In addition to this pilot study, a first appraisal of its sensitivity to tissue type was made on the basis of a small patient cohort. Results:In the malignant tumors, the parametric maps clearly delineated tumors from the breast tissue and enabled visualization of the heterogeneity. The deconvolution analysis provided objective parametric maps of tumor perfusion with a mean TBF (84 Ϯ 48 mL/100 mL/minute) in malignant tumors in the high range of literature values. Conclusion:In terms of these perfusion values, our method appears promising to quantitatively characterize tumor pathophysiology. However, the number of patients was limited, and the separation between malignant and benign groups was not clear-cut. Additional parameters generated through compartment modeling may improve the tumor differentiation.

UMMPerfusion: an Open Source Software Tool Towards Quantitative MRI Perfusion Analysis in Clinical Routine

“…Our rational was that this algorithm is generic (i.e., model-free approach) and robust. This is reflected by numerous studies using deconvolutionbased perfusion analysis for diagnostic of diseases in the brain [9,42], the heart [43,44], the lungs [45,46], the breast [47], the kidneys [48], and the prostate [14]. This technique is not limited to MRI and was also applied to CT perfusion data [49,50].…”

An improved coverage and spatial resolution—using dual injection dynamic contrast‐enhanced (ICE‐DICE) MRI: A novel dynamic contrast‐enhanced technique for cerebral tumors

“…The use of SI data in this previous study meant that the prebolus contrast dose had to be optimized to ensure a linear relationship between signal enhancement and contrast medium concentration (7,13,14). In our study, the prebolus AIF during the first pass was described using contrast concentration, C p (t), rather than SI values which avoids this constraint.…”

“…Anatomical images (3D T2W, FLAIR, 3D T1W) were first acquired. The ICR-DICE method used a dual-bolus technique (6,14). First, four consecutive 3D fast gradient recalled echo acquisitions with an array of flip angles, typically 2 , 10 , 20 , and 30…”

Diagnostic Value of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Parametric Imaging in Breast Tumors

“…Several studies have also obtained similar results [15-17], but only one of these studies [17] showed a statistically significant difference in mTT between benign and malignancy. The shorter mTT likely reflects these morphological differences, resulting in a more rapid flow of microbubbles through malignant tumors as compared to the more normal vasculature of a benign mass.…”