Simultaneous acquisition sequence for improved hepatic pharmacokinetics quantification accuracy (SAHA) for dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI of liver.
PURPOSE
To propose a simultaneous acquisition sequence for improved hepatic pharmacokinetics quantification accuracy (SAHA) method for liver dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI.


METHODS
The proposed SAHA simultaneously acquired high temporal-resolution 2D images for vascular input function extraction using Cartesian sampling and 3D large-coverage high spatial-resolution liver dynamic contrast-enhanced images using golden angle stack-of-stars acquisition in an interleaved way. Simulations were conducted to investigate the accuracy of SAHA in pharmacokinetic analysis. A healthy volunteer and three patients with cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma were included in the study to investigate the feasibility of SAHA in vivo.


RESULTS
Simulation studies showed that SAHA can provide closer results to the true values and lower root mean square error of estimated pharmacokinetic parameters in all of the tested scenarios. The in vivo scans of subjects provided fair image quality of both 2D images for arterial input function and portal venous input function and 3D whole liver images. The in vivo fitting results showed that the perfusion parameters of healthy liver were significantly different from those of cirrhotic liver and HCC.


CONCLUSIONS
The proposed SAHA can provide improved accuracy in pharmacokinetic modeling and is feasible in human liver dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI, suggesting that SAHA is a potential tool for liver dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI. Magn Reson Med 79:2629-2641, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.
['Ning|Jia|J|', 'Sun|Yongliang|Y|', 'Xie|Sheng|S|', 'Zhang|Bida|B|', 'Huang|Feng|F|', 'Koken|Peter|P|', 'Smink|Jouke|J|', 'Yuan|Chun|C|', 'Chen|Huijun|H|']
D000328:Adult D000465:Algorithms D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular D003287:Contrast Media D006801:Humans D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted D008099:Liver D008113:Liver Neoplasms D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D019047:Phantoms, Imaging
liver dynamic contrast-enhanced imaging high spatiotemporal resolution improved pharmacokinetics quantification accuracy