Parametrische biomedizinische Bildgebung - was macht die Qualität quantitativer radiologischer Verfahren aus?

Abstract

Quantitative parametric imaging approaches provide new perspectives for radiological imaging. These include quantitative 2D, 3D, and 4D visualization options along with the parametric depiction of biological tissue properties and tissue function. This allows the interpretation of radiological data from a biochemical, biomechanical, or physiological perspective. Quantification permits the detection of small changes that are not yet visually apparent, thus allowing application in early disease diagnosis and monitoring therapy with enhanced sensitivity. This review outlines the potential of quantitative parametric imaging methods and demonstrates this on the basis of a few exemplary applications. One field of particular interest, the use of these methods for investigational new drug application studies, is presented. Assessment criteria for judging the quality of quantitative imaging approaches are discussed in the context of the potential and the limitations of these methods. While quantitative parametric imaging methods do not replace but rather supplement established visual interpretation methods in radiology, they do open up new perspectives for diagnosis and prognosis and in particular for monitoring disease progression and therapy.

Dual-Energy CT Angiography of the Lung in Patients with Suspected Pulmonary Embolism: Initial Results

“…In a more recent study Wildberger et al proposed a subtraction technique of whole-thorax multidetector CT scans acquired before and after intravenous contrast within a single breath-hold [8]. In all these studies color-coded parametric maps of lung perfusion were calculated to visualize PE-related perfusion defects [9]. Recently, a dual-source CT system equipped with two X-ray tubes and two corresponding detectors became clinically available.…”

Blood Flow in Cerebral Aneurysms: Comparison of Phase Contrast Magnetic Resonance and Computational Fluid Dynamics - Preliminary Experience

“…As an application of the concept of parametric biomedical imaging [11], we combined QMRA, pcMRI and CFD to visualize the blood flow patterns in three cerebral aneurysms and were therefore able to demonstrate that pcMRI is capable of visualizing invivo main features of the primary flow pattern in intracranial aneurysms. A comparison of these measured flow patterns with the ones calculated with CFD showed qualitatively corresponding results, especially at the time points of maximum and minimum arterial inflow.…”

MR-Bildgebung und MR-Spektroskopie zur Charakterisierung von Kardiomyopathien bei Jugendlichen - erste Ergebnisse

“…Frü-here Studien, die auf grçßeren Patientengruppen fußten, zeigten vergleichbare Ergebnisse zu den hier vorgestellten [5,6]. Trotz der kleinen Fallzahl konnten unter Verwendung einer metabolischen Quantifizierungsmethode [26] erstmalig für eine wesentlich jüngere Patientengruppe Trends ermittelt werden. Zudem konnte an der Gruppe der gesunden Jugendlichen gezeigt werden, dass die Werte des kardialen Energiestoffwechsels mit bereits publizierten Werten jüngerer Erwachsener übereinstim-men, d. h. dass hier keine fundamentalen ¾nderungen vorliegen [21,22].…”