Variability in Quantitative DCE-MRI: Sources and Solutions.

DCE-MRI has been extensively used for diagnosis, prognosis and therapy monitoring of various diseases including cancer. However, it has been reported that the perfusion parameters measured by DCE-MRI largely vary across different research sites, preventing data comparison in multi-institutional clinical trials. Recently, novel perfusion phantoms have been developed to correct scanner-driven errors, enabling quality assurance of quantitative DCE-MRI measurement. However, the sources for the variability in quantitating perfusion parameters are not only MRI scanners but also software packages and imaging protocols set by the operators. In this manuscript, the various sources influencing the variability in quantitative DCE-MRI measurement are reviewed, and the proper solutions to minimize those are discussed.