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Comparison of first pass bolus AIFs extracted from sequential 18F-FDG PET and DSC-MRI of mice.


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Authors

Evans, Eleanor 
Sawiak, Stephen J 
Ward, Alexander O 
Buonincontri, Guido 
Hawkes, Robert C 

Abstract

Accurate kinetic modelling of in vivo physiological function using positron emission tomography (PET) requires determination of the tracer time-activity curve in plasma, known as the arterial input function (AIF). The AIF is usually determined by invasive blood sampling methods, which are prohibitive in murine studies due to low total blood volumes. Extracting AIFs from PET images is also challenging due to large partial volume effects (PVE). We hypothesise that in combined PET with magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MR), a co-injected bolus of MR contrast agent and PET ligand can be tracked using fast MR acquisitions. This protocol would allow extraction of a MR AIF from MR contrast agent concentration-time curves, at higher spatial and temporal resolution than an image-derived PET AIF. A conversion factor could then be applied to the MR AIF for use in PET kinetic analysis. This work has compared AIFs obtained from sequential DSC-MRI and PET with separate injections of gadolinium contrast agent and 18F-FDG respectively to ascertain the technique's validity. An automated voxel selection algorithm was employed to improve MR AIF reproducibility. We found that MR and PET AIFs displayed similar character in the first pass, confirmed by gamma variate fits (p<0.02). MR AIFs displayed reduced PVE compared to PET AIFs, indicating their potential use in PET/MR studies.

Description

Keywords

PET/MR, Arterial input function, PET, MRI, Mice, Contrast agent

Journal Title

Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res A

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0168-9002
1872-9576

Volume Title

734

Publisher

Elsevier BV
Sponsorship
This work was funded by an MRC studentship and travel to PSMR 2013 was funded by the EU COST action for PET/MR.