Method for computing pharmacokinetic parameters in mri

A computer system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a program storage device readable by the computer system, embodying a program of instructions executable by the processor to perform method steps for computing pharmacokinetic parameters, the method comprising:
• using a phantom of a known T1 value and computing a deviation factor when said phantom is placed in an MRI system;
• normalizing intrinsic T1 value of a sample tissue using said computed deviation factor when said sample tissue is placed in the MRI system;
• and
• computing said pharmacokinetic parameters using said normalized T1 value of the sample tissue.

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system comprising a controller for causing computation of pharmacokinetic parameters by the steps of

• using a phantom of a known T1 value and computing a deviation factor when said phantom is placed in the MRI system;
• normalizing intrinsic T1 value of a sample tissue using said computed deviation factor when said sample tissue is placed in the MRI system;
• and
• computing said pharmacokinetic parameters using said normalized T1 value of the sample tissue.