Evaluating reproducibility and repeatability of penalty function based methods for quantitative intravoxel incoherent motion analysis.

Abstract

Reproducibility and repeatability of penalty-based IVIM analysis methodologies BE+TV and BE+HPF have been evaluated using clinical dataset with osteosarcoma in comparison with existing IVIM analysis methods. IVIM datasets at three time-points during chemotherapy were analyzed and healthy muscle tissue was used as local control for IVIM analysis and evaluation of scan-rescan repeatability and reproducibility. Results showed, parametric maps estimated by BE+TV and BE+HPF methods were observed to have higher reproducibility and lower spatial inhomogeneity than the existing IVIM analysis methods and produced satisfactory inter-scan agreement in parameters estimation proving its repeatability in clinical scenario.