Patent ID: 8326400

Claim:
A method of perfusion magnetic resonance imaging of a region of interest in a vascularized animal subject, wherein said region of interest has substantial leakage across the capillary membranes, said method comprising: administering a contrast agent bolus into the vascular system of said subject such that the contrast agent will make a least a first pass of the region of interest, wherein the first pass has a beginning and an end; determining a magnetic resonance signal strength s i (t) for voxels (i) of said region of interest at a series of time values (t) over a period from before contrast agent arrival in said region of interest to at least the end of the first pass of said contrast agent through said region of interest; from the determined values s i (t) for said signal strength and an arterial input function v(t), determining values for the tissue residue function r i (t) for each said voxel; and generating an image of said region of interest from the determined values of r i (t); the improvement comprising generating from s i (t) a voxel specific arterial function for each said voxel v i (t) and using said voxel specific arterial functions to determine the values of the tissue residue function r i (t).