This Matlab code estimates the bolus arrival time (BAT) of DCE-MRI signals. It is particularly intended to work with signals that do not have a fast upslope as it is often the case for data of small animals. The proposed method employs a spline-based approximation model. Parameter estimation is done by generalized cross validation.

A detailed documentation of the method is given in this technical report. See also

• Run "DCEC_install.m" or add subfolders manually to Matlab path
• Run a demo script from the demos folder, e.g. "DCEBE_demo.m"

The method is described in the paper

• A. Bendinger, C. Debus, C. Glowa, C. Karger, J. Peter, M. Storath, "Bolus arrival time estimation in dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI of small animals based on spline models".

Thanks to T. Driscoll for sharing his code for computing finite difference weights.