Stepwise heterogeneity analysis of breast tumors in perfusion DCE-MRI datasets

Mojgan Mohajer; Volker J. Schmid; Nina A. Engels; Peter B. Noel; Ernst Rummeny; Karl-Hans Englmeier

doi:10.1117/12.910499

16 April 2012 Stepwise heterogeneity analysis of breast tumors in perfusion DCE-MRI datasets

Mojgan Mohajer, Volker J. Schmid, Nina A. Engels, Peter B. Noel, Ernst Rummeny, Karl-Hans Englmeier

Proceedings Volume 8317, Medical Imaging 2012: Biomedical Applications in Molecular, Structural, and Functional Imaging; 83171K (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.910499
Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2012, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The signal curves in perfusion dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) of cancerous breast tissue reveal valuable information about tumor angiogenesis. Pathological studies have illustrated that breast tumors consist of different subregions, especially with more homogeneous properties during their growth. Differences should be identifiable in DCEMRI signal curves if the characteristics of these sub-regions are related to the perfusion and angiogenesis. We introduce a stepwise clustering method which in a first step uses a new similarity measure. The new similarity measure (PM) compares how parallel washout phases of two curves are. To distinguish the starting point of the washout phase, a linear regression method is partially fitted to the curves. In the next step, the minimum signal value of the washout phase is normalized to zero. Finally, PM is calculated according to maximal variation among the point wise differences during washout phases. In the second step of clustering the groups of signal curves with parallel washout are clustered using Euclidean distance. The introduced method is evaluated on 15 DCE-MRI breast datasets with different types of breast tumors. The use of our new heterogeneity analysis is feasible in single patient examination and improves breast MR diagnostics.

Citation Download Citation

Mojgan Mohajer, Volker J. Schmid, Nina A. Engels, Peter B. Noel, Ernst Rummeny, and Karl-Hans Englmeier "Stepwise heterogeneity analysis of breast tumors in perfusion DCE-MRI datasets", Proc. SPIE 8317, Medical Imaging 2012: Biomedical Applications in Molecular, Structural, and Functional Imaging, 83171K (16 April 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.910499

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