Coregistration of ultrasonography and magnetic resonance imaging with a preliminary investigation of the spatial colocalization of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 expression and tumor perfusion in a murine tumor model.

We present an ultrasonography (US)-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) coregistration technique and examine its application in a preliminary multimodal, multiparametric study in a preclinical model of breast cancer. Nine mice were injected with 67NR breast cancer cells and imaged 6 and 9 days later with 4.7 T MRI and high-frequency US. Tumor volumes from each data set were segmented independently by two investigators and coregistered using an iterative closest point algorithm. In addition to anatomic images, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2) distribution images from the central tumor slice using VEGFR2-targeted ultrasound contrast agent (UCA) and measurements of perfusion and extravascular-extracellular volume fraction using dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI were acquired from five mice for multiparametric coregistration. Parametric maps from each modality were coregistered and examined for spatial correlation. Average registration root mean square (RMS) error was 0.36 +/- 0.11 mm, less than approximately two voxels. Segmented volumes were compared between investigators to minimize interobserver variability; the average RMS error was 0.23 +/- 0.09 mm. In the preliminary study, VEGFR2-targeted UCA data did not demonstrate direct spatial correlation with magnetic resonance measures of vascular properties. In summary, a method for accurately coregistering small animal US and MRI has been presented that allows for comparison of quantitative metrics provided by the two modalities.