Assessment of MRI contrast agent concentration by quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM): application to estimation of cerebral blood volume during steady state

OBJECTIVE: One major issue in dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI (DSC-MRI) is to accurately determine contrast agent (CA) concentration, since T2* relaxivity in vivo is generally unknown and varies between blood and tissue. In this study, quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) was used for quantification of CA concentration. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A DSC-MRI protocol, including phase data acquisition, was applied to 20 healthy volunteers in a test–retest study. By selecting a CSF reference region of interest (ROI), the values of all QSM images were shifted to show no CA-induced change in CSF. CA concentration and cerebral blood volume (CBV) were estimated using shifted QSM data. CSF reference ROI optimization was evaluated by investigation of CBV repeatability. The CBV age dependence was analysed and tissue T2* relaxivity was estimated. RESULTS: The best repeatability of CBV, using an optimal CSF reference ROI, showed test-versus-retest correlations of r = 0.81 and r = 0.91 for white and grey matter, respectively. A slight CBV decrease with age was observed, and the estimated in vivo T2* relaxivity was 85 mM(−1)s(−1). CONCLUSION: Provided that a carefully selected CSF reference ROI is used to shift QSM image values, susceptibility information can be used to estimate concentration of contrast agent and to calculate CBV. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10334-017-0637-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.