Influence of scan duration on dynamic contrast -enhanced magnetic resonance imaging pharmacokinetic parameters for brain lesions

Silvia Minosse; Eliseo Picchi; Valentina Ferrazzoli; Noemi Pucci; Valerio Da Ros; Raffaella Giocondo; Roberto Floris; Francesco Garaci; Francesca Di Giuliano

doi:10.1016/j.mri.2023.11.002

Influence of scan duration on dynamic contrast -enhanced magnetic resonance imaging pharmacokinetic parameters for brain lesions

Magn Reson Imaging. 2024 Jan:105:46-56. doi: 10.1016/j.mri.2023.11.002. Epub 2023 Nov 7.

Authors

Silvia Minosse¹, Eliseo Picchi², Valentina Ferrazzoli³, Noemi Pucci², Valerio Da Ros², Raffaella Giocondo⁴, Roberto Floris², Francesco Garaci⁵, Francesca Di Giuliano³

Affiliations

¹ Diagnostic Imaging Unit, Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Viale Oxford 81, Rome 00133, Italy. Electronic address: silvia.minosse2@gmail.com.
² Diagnostic Imaging Unit, Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Viale Oxford 81, Rome 00133, Italy; Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, Rome 00133, Italy.
³ Neuroradiology Unit, Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Viale Oxford 81, Rome 00133, Italy; Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, Rome 00133, Italy.
⁴ Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, Rome 00133, Italy.
⁵ Neuroradiology Unit, Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Viale Oxford 81, Rome 00133, Italy; Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, Rome 00133, Italy; San Raffaele Cassino, Via Gaetano di Biasio 1, Cassino 03043, Italy.

PMID: 37939968
DOI: 10.1016/j.mri.2023.11.002

Abstract

Objective: Gadolinium-based contrast agent needs time to leak into the extravascular-extracellular space, leak back into the vascular space, and reach an equilibrium state. For this reason, acquisition times of <10 min may cause inaccurate estimation of pharmacokinetic parameters. Since no studies have been conducted on the influence of long scan times on DCE-MRI parameters in brain tumors, the aim of this study is to investigate the variation of DCE-MRI-derived kinetic parameters as a function of acquisition time, from 5 to 10 min in brain tumors.

Materials and methods: Fifty-two patients with histologically confirmed brain tumors were enrolled in this retrospective study, and examination at 3 T, DCE-MRI, with scan duration of 10 min, was used for retrospective generation of 6 sets of quantitative DCE-MRI maps (K^trans, V_e and K_ep) from 5 to 10 min. Features were extracted from the DCE-MRI maps in contrast enhancement (CE) volumes. Kruskal-Wallis with post-hoc correction and coefficient of variation (CoV) were used as statistical test to compare DCE-MRI maps obtained from 6 data sets.

Significance: p < 0.05.

Results: No differences in K^trans features in CE volumes between different scan durations. V_e, K_ep features in CE volumes were influenced by different data length. The highest number of significantly different V_e and K_ep features in CE volumes were between 5 min and 10 min (p < 0.013), 5 min and 9 min (p < 0.044), 6 min and 10 min (p < 0.040). CoV of K_ep was reduced from 5 min to 10 min, going from highly variable (CoV = 0.70) to mildly variable (CoV = 0.42).

Conclusion: K_ep and V_e were time-dependent in brain tumors, so a longer scan time is needed to obtain reliable parameter values. K^trans was found to be time-independent, as it remains the same in all 6 acquisition times and is the only reliable parameter with short acquisition times.

Keywords: Brain tumor; Dynamic contrast enhanced; Magnetic resonance imaging; Tofts model.

MeSH terms

Brain / diagnostic imaging
Brain Neoplasms* / diagnostic imaging
Contrast Media / pharmacokinetics
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging* / methods
Retrospective Studies

Substances

Contrast Media