Evaluation of IAUGC indices and two DCE-MRI pharmacokinetic parameters assessed by two different theoretical algorithms in patients with brain tumors

Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) quantifies blood–brain barrier (BBB) microvascular permeability in brain tumors where it is structurally and functionally abnormal. Twenty-five patients with glioblastomas (105 regions of interest) were compared using DCE-MRI metrics obtained with Tofts–Kety (TK) and extended TK (ETK) models using different arterial input function assessments and different initial area under the gadolinium curve (IAUGC) indices.Strong correlations between ve and IAUGC90 were found (EKT model: R= 0.75 and R= 0.69), while correlations of Ktrans with both IAUGC80/90 indices were weak. Differences in the permeability parameters, calculated by these two models, were found.While the IAUGC method can be implemented more easily than pharmacokinetic models, at this time, the IAUGC approach alone does not substitute pharmacokinetic models in BBB permeability characterization.