System and method for dynamic multiple contrast enhanced, magnetic resonance fingerprinting (DMCE-MRF)

A system comprising:

• a magnet system configured to generate a polarizing magnetic field about at least a portion of a subject;
• a magnetic gradient system including a plurality of magnetic gradient coils configured to apply at least one magnetic gradient field to the polarizing magnetic field;
• a radio frequency (RF) system configured to apply an RF field to the subject and to receive magnetic resonance signals from the subject using a coil array;
• a computer system programmed to:
• control the magnetic gradient system and the RF system to perform a series of variable sequence blocks that cause one or more resonance species in a region of interest (ROI) of a subject having received a dose of two or more contrast agents having at least two different relaxivities to simultaneously produce individual magnetic resonance signals to acquire the simultaneously produced individual magnetic resonance signals as MRF signal evolutions;
• compare the acquired MRF signal evolutions to a dictionary of signal evolutions to determine quantitative values for two or more parameters of the one or more resonant species based, at least in part, on matching the acquired MRF signal evolutions to a set of known signal evolutions stored in the dictionary, wherein the two or more parameters include at least a T1 relaxation time and a T2 relaxation time;
• determine, using a model that relates the different relaxivities, the T1 relaxation time, the T2 relaxation time, and concentrations of the two or more contrast agents, the concentrations of the two or more contrast agents;
• a display configured to display at least one image of the ROI showing the concentrations of the two or more contrast agents;
• and
• wherein the computer model includes the form:
• 1/T1=1/T10+r1A×[A]+r1B×[B] and 1/T2=1/T20+r2A×[A]+r2B×[B];
• wherein T10 is a pre-contrast T1 relaxation value of tissue in the ROI, T20 is a pre-contrast T2 relaxation value of tissue in the ROI;
• T1 is a post-contrast T1 relaxation value of tissue in the ROI, T2 is a post-contrast T2 relaxation value;
• [A] is a concentration of a first of the two or more contrast agents;
• r1A is an r1 relaxivity of first of the two or more contrast agents;
• r2A is an r2 relaxivity of first of the two or more contrast agents;
• [B] is a concentration of a second of the two or more contrast agents;
• r1B is an r1 relaxivity of second of the two or more contrast agents;
• and r2B is a r2 relaxivity of second of the two or more contrast agents.