An evaluation of four parametric models of contrast enhancement for dynamic magnetic resonance imaging of the breast.

This paper presents an empirical evaluation of the goodness-of-fit (GOF) of four parametric models of contrast enhancement for dynamic resonance imaging of the breast: the Tofts, Brix, and Hayton pharmacokinetic models, and a novel empiric model. The goodness-of-fit of each model was evaluated with respect to: (i) two model-fitting algorithms (Levenberg-Marquardt and Nelder-Mead) and two fitting tolerances; and (ii) temporal resolution. In the first case the GOF was measured using data from three dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI data sets from routine clinical examinations: one case with benign enhancement, one with malignant enhancement, and one with normal findings. Results are presented for fits to both the whole breast volume and to a selected region of interest. In the second case the GOF was measured by first fitting the models to several temporally sub-sampled versions of a custom high temporal resolution data set (subset of the breast volume containing a malignant lesion), and then comparing the fitted results to the original full temporal resolution data. Our results demonstrate that under the various optimization conditions considered, in general, both the proposed empiric model and the Hayton model fit the data equally well and that both of these models fit the data better than the Tofts and Brix models.