Comparison between intensity normalization techniques for dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC)-MRI estimates of cerebral blood volume (CBV) in human gliomas.

Benjamin M Ellingson, Taryar Zaw, Timothy F Cloughesy, Kourosh M Naeini, Shadi Lalezari, Sandy Mong, Albert Lai, Phioanh L Nghiemphu, Whitney B Pope

Department of Radiological Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90024, USA. bellingson@mednet.ucla.edu

Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI 2012 Jun

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To compare "standardization," "Gaussian normalization," and "Z-score normalization" intensity transformation techniques in dynamic susceptibility contrast magnetic resonance imaging (DSC-MRI) estimates of cerebral blood volume (CBV) in human gliomas. DSC-MRI is a well-established biomarker for CBV in brain tumors; however, DSC-MRI estimates of CBV are semiquantitative. The use of image intensity transformation algorithms provides a mechanism for obtaining quantitatively similar CBV maps with the same intensity scaling. The coefficient of variance (CV) in normal-appearing white matter and relative contrast between tumor regions and normal tissue was compared between the three CBV transformations across five different MR scanners in 96 patients with gliomas. The results suggest all normalization techniques improved variability and relative tumor contrast of CBV measurements compared with nonnormalized CBV maps. The results suggest Gaussian normalization of CBV maps provided slightly lower CV in normal white matter and provided slightly higher tumor contrast for glioblastomas (WHO grade IV) compared with other techniques. The results suggest Gaussian normalization of leakage-corrected CBV maps may be the best choice for image intensity correction for use in large-scale, multicenter clinical trials where MR scanners and protocols vary widely due to ease of implementation, lowest variability, and highest tumor to normal tissue contrast. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Citation

Benjamin M Ellingson, Taryar Zaw, Timothy F Cloughesy, Kourosh M Naeini, Shadi Lalezari, Sandy Mong, Albert Lai, Phioanh L Nghiemphu, Whitney B Pope. Comparison between intensity normalization techniques for dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC)-MRI estimates of cerebral blood volume (CBV) in human gliomas. Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI. 2012 Jun;35(6):1472-7