Dynamic MR Imaging of Patients with Breast Cancer -- Establishment and Comparison of Different Analytical Methods for Tissue Perfusion and Capillary Permeability
The present invention encompasses methods, apparatus, and computer based systems for identifying benign and malignant tumors in tissues such as soft tissues and particularly breast tissue using dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imagining (DCE-MRI) and dynamic susceptibility contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance (DSC) imagining of the tumors. Some embodiments encompass the use of two dynamic MRI pulse sequences in intercalating mode during parenteral administration of an MR contrast substance, wherein one of said pulse sequences is optimized for spatial information and the other pulse sequence is adjusted for high temporal solution, the high-temporal dissolved sequence further comprising a double echo-collection sensitive towards both DCE and DSC for generating a number of different biomarker data such as pharmacokinetic biomarker data, descriptive DCE biomarkers and descriptive DSC biomarkers, and subsequently normalizing and comparing said data with corresponding data from corresponding benign and malign tumors, respectively.
