Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides methods for characterizing tissue micro-structure using relaxation-based measurements with and without the use of contrast agents (CA). Two techniques, dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) and multiple spin-echo (MSE) imaging, often employ two-pool models to obtain estimates of tissue compartment sizes. These estimates can be biased, however, by tissue water dynamics. Alternate strategies, such as single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging, can provide measures of tissue compartment size unbiased by water exchange. In this work, DCE-MRI measurements in rat brain tumor were compared to a dual-isotope SPECT method to assess the accuracy of estimates of the extracellular volume fraction extracted from common pharmacokinetic models. In addition, quantitative SPECT was used to validate a novel contrast enhanced MSE method, in injured rat skeletal muscle, for estimating in vivo inter-compartmental water exchange. In an effort to translate similar MSE techniques to human imaging, an accelerated method for accurate compartmental relaxometry was also evaluated.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03262012-134201 |
| Date | 11 April 2012 |
| Creators | Skinner, Jack Thomas |
| Contributors | Mark Does, Tom Yankeelov, Todd Peterson, Bruce Damon, John Gore |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03262012-134201/ |
| Rights | restrictone, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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