Functional modeling for liver imaging and nodule characterization

In this paper, we propose to use functional modeling to extract physiological characteristics from dynamic gadolinium-enhanced MRI. The clinical objective is to independently compute the two vascular supplies of the liver, coming from hepatic artery and portal vein. These supplies are progressively modified in hepatocarcinogenesis, and their assessment can be useful for nodule characterization. A first physiological microscopic model of liver vascularization, allows simulating the evolution of the contrast material concentration. After comparison of simulated and real curves, a simplified version of this model is used to extract arterial and portal perfusion parameters, in normal case and in hepatic nodules. These values are in accordance with data obtained by invasive methods.