DATforDCEMRI: An R Package for Deconvolution Analysis and Visualization of DCE-MRI Data

Abstract

Numerical deconvolution is a powerful mathematical operation that can be used to extract the impulse response function of a linear, time-invariant system. We have found this method to be useful for preliminary analysis of dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) data, capable of quickly producing voxel-wise parametric maps describing the heterogeneity of contrast agent kinetics over the entire field of view, typically comprising tens of thousands of voxels. The statistical programming language R is well suited for this type of analysis and when combined with LATEX, via Sweave, allows one to perform all calculations and generate a report with a single script. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the R package DATforDCEMRI, a Deconvolution Analysis Tool for DCE-MRI contrast agent concentration vs. time data, which allows the user to perform kinetic deconvolution analysis and visualize/explore the resulting voxel-wise parametric maps and associated data.