Transport modeling for multi-modality contrast-enhanced imaging

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The use of dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) imaging is rapidly becoming an important tool to understand a variety of diseases and interventions. This is critical in other fields as well ranging from engineering and chemistry to structural and cell biology. At present DCE imaging is able to assess tissue functionality through blood flow and perfusion. Our most recent work has shown that the reliability of current kinetic models is much reduced in tissues with poor oxygenation and high pressure. Incorporating more information on the micro-environmental conditions of tissue would help illuminate more disease processes and increase the value of DCE imaging for diagnostic purposes and to assess the efficacy of drug delivery mechanisms and the response to targeted interventions. Interstitial fluid pressure (IFP) is one feature that would be valuable to acquire non-invasively—current measurements of IFP require a needle-based approach that can only be used on accessible tissue locations and is difficult to repeat. Preliminary work from our lab indicates that these types of parameters can be derived from non-invasive DCE imaging. To create these capabilities and improve the quantification of DCE-derived measures, we will create a model of fluid transport in tissue that links drug/contrast agent convection and diffusion, interstitial fluid pressure and hypoxia conditions in a cross-voxel approach. The technical aims described below set out a plan of research that addresses the underlying physics-related developments needed to achieve a fast, GPU-based computer model that provides measures of important tissue characteristics independent of observer interpretation: • Development of a robust composite microenvironment drug transport model. Fundamental convection, diffusion and thermodynamic behavior of CT and MRI contrast agents will be combined to describe pressure, permeability, flow and retention within a computer simulated transport framework; • Validation using a permeable tissue polymer phantom. A tissue-mimicking perfusion phantom will be developed and manufactured using biopolymers and gel systems that can match the spectrum of normal and diseased tissues to act as a measurement validation tool. • Acceleration using GPU-based implementation of composite transport modeling. This highly interdisciplinary research program embraces biophysics, material engineering, and computational analytics and HPC development. HQP are directly involved in the design, implementation and validation of creating improved transport models, each with a specific focus on computer simulations and phantom material engineering allowing them to be fully immersed in all components and applications of this unique imaging research project.