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Influence of blood/tissue differences in contrast agent relaxivity on tracer-based MR perfusion measurements

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Abstract

Purpose

Perfusion assessment by monitoring the transport of a tracer bolus depends critically on conversion of signal intensity into tracer concentration. Two main assumptions are generally applied for this conversion; (1) contrast agent relaxivity is identical in blood and tissue, (2) change in signal intensity depends only on the primary relaxation effect. The purpose of the study was to assess the validity and influence of these assumptions.

Materials and methods

Blood and cerebral tissue relaxivities r1, r2, and r2* for gadodiamide were measured in four pigs at 1.5 T. Gadolinium concentration was determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy. Influence of the relaxivities, secondary relaxation effects and choice of singular value decomposition (SVD) regularization threshold was studied by simulations.

Results

In vivo relaxivities relative to blood concentration [in s−1 mM−1 for blood, gray matter (GM), white matter (WM)] were for r1 (2.614 ± 1.061, 0.010 ± 0.001, 0.004 ± 0.002), r2 (5.088 ± 0.952, 0.091 ± 0.008, 0.059 ± 0.014), and r2* (13.292 ± 3.928, 1.696 ± 0.157, 0.910 ± 0.139). Although substantial, by a nonparametric test for paired samples, the differences were not statistically significant. The GM to WM blood volume ratio was estimated to 2.6 ± 0.9 by r1, 1.6 ± 0.3 by r2, and 1.9 ± 0.2 by r2*. Secondary relaxation was found to reduce the tissue blood flow, as did the SVD regularization threshold.

Conclusion

Contrast agent relaxivity is not identical in blood and tissue leading to substantial errors. Further errors are introduced by secondary relaxation effects and the SVD regularization.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council; grants K2013-64x-08268-26-3 and 621-2011-4423. Håkan Pettersson is acknowledged for the preparation of the figures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Radiology, Department of Radiology, Oncology and Radiation Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Arvid Morell, Håkan Ahlström & Atle Bjørnerud

  2. Section of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Department of Surgical Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Fredrik Lennmyr, Ove Jonsson & Thomas Tovedal

  3. Department of Chemistry - Biomedical Center, Analytical Chemistry, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Jean Pettersson & Jonas Bergquist

  4. Section of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgical Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Vitas Zemgulis, Gunnar Myrdal Einarsson & Stefan Thelin

  5. The Intervention Centre, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

    Atle Bjørnerud

  6. Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Atle Bjørnerud

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  1. Arvid Morell
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  2. Fredrik Lennmyr
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Correspondence to Arvid Morell.

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Morell, A., Lennmyr, F., Jonsson, O. et al. Influence of blood/tissue differences in contrast agent relaxivity on tracer-based MR perfusion measurements. Magn Reson Mater Phy 28, 135–147 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-014-0452-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-014-0452-5

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