Evaluation of contrast agent dose and diffusion coefficient measurement on vessel size index estimation

Objectives: The goal of this study is to examine the effect of contrast agent (CA) dose and diffusion coefficient on the estimation of vessel size index (VSI).

Materials and methods: Three groups of four participants were enrolled in this study and two different experiments were performed. Different dose of CA, namely 0.1 mmol/kg and 0.05 mmol/kg were assessed in two groups of normal subjects. Diffusion coefficient effect was assessed in the third group with high-grade glioma. Imaging included gradient echo and spin-echo DSC and DTI on a 3-T MR Scanner.

Results: VSI estimation using half of standard dose of CA showed higher values compared to the application of standard, with a ratio of 2 for the WM and 1.5 for the GM. VSI estimates for tumor tissues (22 µm) were considerably higher compared to contra-lateral Normal-Appearing WM (NAWM, 4 µm, P < 0.01) and Normal-Appearing GM (NAGM, 8 µm, P < 0.04).

Discussion: Application of standard dose for CA injection and also taking into account the effect of diffusion coefficient can lead to a better correlation of VSI with previous theoretically predicted values and improvement of individual diagnostics in tumor evaluations.