However, as prostate tumors are frequently small in size, potentially measuring less than 1 cm 12, their precise depiction can be critical for guiding a targeted biopsy or treatment, and a higher spatial resolution may be preferred. A higher temporal resolution is also essential for advanced pharmacokinetic modeling requiring an arterial input function 11. Nonetheless, many investigations report a considerably higher temporal resolution, in some instances under 3 seconds per acquisition 10. Indeed, recent expert guidelines advise a temporal resolution of at least 15 seconds 2. As the prostate is often highly vascular, differences in enhancement kinetics between benign and malignant regions can be subtle, such that high temporal resolution can assist in their differentiation 1. One challenge in the implementation of DCE in the prostate is the inherent trade-off between spatial and temporal resolution in MRI (Table 1) 7- 9. Findings on DCE have been incorporated into standardized reporting schemes for prostate MRI 2 and are useful for guiding prostate biopsy 4, planning treatment 5, and monitoring posttherapy recurrences 6. DCE has become a routine component of multiparametric prostate MRI protocols and improves the detection, localization, and staging of prostate cancer 2, 3. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.ĭYNAMIC CONTRAST-ENHANCED (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the prostate comprises sequential T 1-weighted imaging (T 1WI) acquisitions following injection of gadolinium-based contrast agent and aims to depict abnormal pharmacokinetics within tumorous regions 1. High spatiotemporal resolution prostate DCE is possible with GRASP, which has the potential to improve image quality and lesion depiction as compared with standard DCE. In 8/20 cases, only GRASP showed earlier contrast arrival in tumor than benign in no case did only standard DCE show earlier contrast arrival in tumor.

GRASP showed improved interreader correlation for lesion size (GRASP: r = 0.691–0.824, standard: r = 0.495–0.542). ResultsĬompared with standard DCE, GRASP demonstrated significantly better clarity of the capsule, peripheral/transition zone boundary, urethra, and periprostatic vessels image sharpness and lesion conspicuity for both readers ( P < 0.001–0.020). The experienced reader recorded differences in contrast arrival times between the dominant lesion and benign prostate. Two radiologists assessed measures of image quality and dominant lesion size. Twenty prostate cancer patients underwent two 3T prostate MRI examinations on separate dates, one using standard DCE (spatial resolution 3.0 × 1.9 × 1.9 mm, temporal resolution 5.5 sec) and the other using GRASP (spatial resolution 3.0 × 1.1 × 1.1 mm, temporal resolution 2.3 sec). To demonstrate dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the prostate with both high spatial and temporal resolution via a combination of golden-angle radial k-space sampling, compressed sensing, and parallel-imaging reconstruction (GRASP), and to compare image quality and lesion depiction between GRASP and conventional DCE in prostate cancer patients.

Prostate mr contrast volume