title: The Impact of Arterial Input Function Determination Variations on Prostate Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging Pharmacokinetic Modeling: A Multicenter Data Analysis Challenge.
abstract: Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) has been widely used in tumor detection and therapy response evaluation. Pharmacokinetic analysis of DCE-MRI time-course data allows estimation of quantitative imaging biomarkers such as Ktrans(rate constant for plasma/interstitium contrast reagent (CR) transfer) and ve(extravascular and extracellular volume fraction). However, the use of quantitative DCE-MRI in clinical prostate imaging islimited, with uncertainty in arterial input function (AIF,i.e., the time rate of change of the concentration of CR in the blood plasma) determination being one of the primary reasons. In this multicenter data analysis challenge to assess the effects of variations in AIF quantification on estimation of DCE-MRI parameters, prostate DCE-MRI data acquired at one center from 11 prostate cancer patients were shared among nine centers. Each center used its site-specific method to determine the individual AIF from each data set and submitted the results to the managing center. Along with a literature population averaged AIF, these AIFs and their reference-tissue-adjusted variants were used by the managing center to perform pharmacokinetic analysis of the DCE-MRI data sets using the Tofts model (TM). All other variables including tumor region of interest (ROI) definition and pre-contrast T1were kept the same to evaluate parameter variations caused by AIF variations only. Considerable pharmacokinetic parameter variations were observed with the within-subject coefficient of variation (wCV) of Ktransobtained with unadjusted AIFs as high as 0.74. AIF-caused variations were larger in Ktransthan veand both were reduced when reference-tissue-adjusted AIFs were used. The parameter variations were largely systematic, resulting in nearly unchanged parametric map patterns. The CR intravasation rate constant, kep(= Ktrans/ve), was less sensitive to AIF variation than Ktrans(wCV for unadjusted AIFs: 0.45 for kepvs.0.74 for Ktrans), suggesting that it might be a more robust imaging biomarker of prostate microvasculature than Ktrans.
authors.affiliation: Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR.
authors.forename: Yiyi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Andriy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fedorov
authors.affiliation: General ElectricGlobal Research, Niskayuna, NY.
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Icahn School ofMedicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY.
authors.forename: Guido H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Jajamovich
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: Dariya I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Malyarenko
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: Madhava P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Aryal
authors.affiliation: Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.
authors.forename: Peter S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: LaViolette
authors.affiliation: University of Pittsburgh,Pittsburgh, PA.
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Oborski
authors.affiliation: University College, Cork, Ireland.
authors.forename: Finbarr
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: O'Sullivan
authors.affiliation: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
authors.forename: Richard G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Abramson
authors.affiliation: MassachusettsGeneral Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Kourosh
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jafari-Khouzani
authors.affiliation: Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR.
authors.forename: Aneela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Afzal
authors.affiliation: Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR.
authors.forename: Alina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tudorica
authors.affiliation: Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR.
authors.forename: Brendan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Moloney
authors.affiliation: General ElectricGlobal Research, Niskayuna, NY.
authors.forename: Sandeep N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Icahn School ofMedicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY.
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Besa
authors.affiliation: MassachusettsGeneral Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Jayashree
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kalpathy-Cramer
authors.affiliation: University of Pittsburgh,Pittsburgh, PA.
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Mountz
authors.affiliation: University of Pittsburgh,Pittsburgh, PA.
authors.forename: Charles M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Laymon
authors.affiliation: University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muzi
authors.affiliation: Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schmainda
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: Thomas L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Chenevert
authors.affiliation: Icahn School ofMedicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY.
authors.forename: Bachir
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Taouli
authors.affiliation: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
authors.forename: Thomas E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Yankeelov
authors.affiliation: Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fennessy
authors.affiliation: Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li