Reproducibility of physiologic parameters obtained using functional computed tomography in mice

High-speed X-ray computed tomography (CT) has the potential to observe the transport of iodinated radio-opaque contrast agent (CA) through tissue enabling the quantification of tissue physiology in organs and tumors. The concentration of Iodine in the tissue and in the left ventricle is extracted as a function of time and is fit to a compartmental model for physiologic parameter estimation. The reproducibility of the physiologic parameters depend on the (1) The image-sampling rate. According to our simulations 5-second sampling is required for CA injection rates of 1.0ml/min (2) the compartmental model should reflect the real tissue function to give meaning results. In order to verify these limits a functional CT study was carried out in a group of 3 mice. Dynamic CT scans were performed on all the mice with 0.5ml/min, 1ml/min and 2ml/min CA injection rates. The physiologic parameters were extracted using 4 parameter and 6 parameter two compartmental models (2CM). Single factor ANOVA did not indicate a significant difference in the perfusion, in the kidneys for the different injection rates. The physiologic parameter obtained using the 6-parameter 2CM model was in line with literature values and the 6-parameter significantly improves chi-square goodness of fits for two cases.