In vivo correlation between semi-quantitative hemodynamic parameters and K ^trans derived from DCE-MRI of brain tumors

Dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become more and more widely applied in cancer diagnosis and treatment follow-up. Without complicated calculation, a semiquantitative parameter - modified initial area under the curve (mIAUC _c) - was proposed for better correlation with volume transfer constant (K ^trans) by computer simulation. In this study, we aim to further investigate the correlation between mIAUC _c and K ^trans in clinical. A total of 10 patients with brain tumors participated in this study and images were acquired by using a 3-Tesla clinical MR scanner. The results showed that mIAUC _c was highly correlated with K ^trans with the correlation coefficient of 0.913. Although the ideals of K ^trans and mIAUC _c are different, mIAUC _c does the trick for brain tumors evaluations in DCE-MRI. It reveals that mIAUC _c could be an alternative for physiological condition evaluation in DCE-MRI.