Improved Cerebral Perfusion Imaging Parameter Selection for Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance

Date
2014-05-01
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Abstract
Dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is a standard method for assessing perfusion outside the brain and blood brain barrier permeability. Recent findings have shown that DCE imaging also has potential for acquiring and generating robust and reliable quantitative cerebral perfusion. However, DCE imaging displays low signal differences (ΔS) induced by relaxation-enhancing effects of intravascular gadolinium-based contrast agents in brain tissue. This thesis outlines investigations to improve DCE MR cerebral perfusion imaging by simulating tissue using the spoiled gradient recalled echo (SPGR) model to appropriately select image acquisition parameters to increase ΔS and decrease signal noise. A set of improved imaging parameters (selected via the SPGR model) implemented in experiments performed on a phantom and whole-brain DCE MR imaging on six subjects resulted in a significant increase in ΔS (compared to conventional imaging parameters). Preliminary cerebral blood flow maps were generated from the acquired data.
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Keywords
Engineering--Biomedical
Citation
Lee, E. (2014). Improved Cerebral Perfusion Imaging Parameter Selection for Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26474