Using independent components analysis to calculate intravascular contrast agent concentration in prostate cancer

Dynamic contrast enhanced MRI combined with Pharmacokinetic (PK) modeling of prostate tissue provides information about its microenvironment and vascular permeability. A fundamental step in PK analysis is measuring the intravascular contrast agent concentration or the arterial input function (AIF). In this study a method is introduced to calculate the intravascular concentration in the prostate tissue using an adaptive complex independent components analysis (ACICA) method and to correct this curve for the early phases of the passage of the contrast agent through tumor vasculature. The results are applied to DCE-MR images of the prostate of a 70 year old prostate cancer patient and the calculated K^trans map is examined using tumor location defined by multi-parametric MRI. The results show that there is a high K^trans value in the region in the peripheral zone of the prostate that was hypo-intense in both apparent diffusion coefficient map and T2-weighted MRI. Moreover the results are compared with the parameters derived using a large artery and also corrected artery as the intravascular concentration curve.