Abdominal DCE-MRI in mice with stack of stars sampling and KWIC image reconstruction

Abstract

Dynamic contrast enhanced MRI data in the abdomens of small animal models is often corrupted due to the effects respiratory and peristaltic motion. Here a DCE protocol that employs stack of stars sampling throughout was implemented and was shown to be robust with respect to motion artifacts. The sampling scheme also facilitates image reconstruction methods that employ view sharing, notably KWIC, yielding images with high temporal and spatial resolution. The protocol was demonstrated in an orthotopic murine model of pancreatic cancer. The resulting data were analyzed using the reference tissue method and provided high quality Ktrans and ve parameter maps.