Hierarchical Bayesian myocardial perfusion quantification

Understand

Purpose: Tracer-kinetic models can be used for the quantitative assessment of contrast-enhanced MRI data.

• However, the model-fitting can produce unreliable results due to the limited data acquired and the high noise levels.
• Such problems are especially prevalent in myocardial perfusion MRI leading to the compromise of constrained numerical deconvolutions and segmental signal averaging being commonly used as alternatives to the more complex tracer-kinetic models.
• Methods: In this work, the use of hierarchical Bayesian inference for the parameter estimation is explored.