Deterministic Arterial Input Function selection in DCE-MRI for automation of quantitative perfusion calculation of colorectal cancer

Development of a deterministic algorithm for automated detection of the Arterial Input Function (AIF) in DCEMRI of colorectal cancer. Using a filter pipeline to determine the AIF region of interest. Comparison to algorithms from literature with mean squared error and quantitative perfusion parameter K-trans. The AIF found by our algorithm has a lower mean squared error (0.0022 +/- 0.0021) in reference to the manual annotation than comparable algorithms. The error of K-trans (21.52 +/- 17.2%) is lower than that of other algorithms. Our algorithm generates reproducible results and thus supports a robust and comparable perfusion analysis.

Automated summary

The deterministic algorithm developed in this study successfully detects the Arterial Input Function in DCEMRI of colorectal cancer with a lower error rate compared to algorithms from literature. The algorithm also produces reproducible results and supports robust and comparable perfusion analysis.