Measurement and visualisation of physiological parameters in contrast-enhanced breast magnetic resonance imaging

A method is presented for acquiring and visualising physiological parameters using dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (CE-MRI). To enable reliable, in vivo measurements of contrast agent uptake, an MRI acquisition is performed using an optimised T1 measurement scheme. Pharmacokinetic modelling of contrast uptake is then performed to obtain physiological parameters relating to leakage permeability and volume fraction. A visualisation framework is presented that enables the physiological information to be conveyed to the clinician in a meaningful manner using colour and vector maps and it is demonstrated how this representation can be used for segmentation and tissue classification. Finally, a number of breast MRI cases are presented to demonstrate the clinical relevance of the technique.