Experimentally-derived Functional Form for a Population-averaged High-temporal-resolution Arterial Input Function for Dynamic Contrast-enhanced MRI.” Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

Introduction An accurately measured arterial input function (AIF) is desirable for kinetic modelling using contrast agents. However, in many settings it is not possible to perform such a measurement reliably, either due to data acquisition constraints or due to the lack of a suitable artery within the imaging field of view from which to obtain an AIF. One pragmatic solution to this problem is to use the same assumed AIF for all patients in a study1. To date, only a low temporal resolution assumed AIF has been proposed, based on invasive blood sampling in 5 volunteers1,2. This AIF has been shown to lead to significant errors in the accuracy with which kinetic parameters such as Ktrans, ve, and vb can be quantified3. Here we present a population-averaged AIF derived from 113 individual AIFs measured in the abdomen or pelvi