Comparison of the Tofts and the Shutter Speed Model for DCE-MRI in patients with Brain Glioma

Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumour and there is a wide interest in imaging techniques that stratify tumour behaviour and therapeutic response. PET scans performed with choline based radiotracers are being studied as imaging markers of cell proliferation as choline is a key component of cell membranes. The basis for choline-PET is that primary brain tumours show increased levels of choline uptake when tumour cells are rapidly dividing . In this study, we compared the results of the quantification of both DCE-MRI and dynamic 18F-fluoromethylcholine (FMC) PET on 14 patients with primary untreated glioma. In particular, we applied the Tofts model (TM) and the shutter-speed model (SSM) to DCE-MRI data and spectral analysis (SA) to dynamic FMC-PET data.