Figure 1

Two- and three-compartment models. Compartment 1: Blood; Compartment 2: Extracellular space with communication with blood (free compartment); Compartment 3: Extracellular Space without communication with blood (trapping compartment). Note that compartment three may not be a physical compartment. Inputs to the model are the blood Gd concentration (Cb) and the myocardial tissue Gd-concentration (Ct). Calculated model parameters are the transfer constant between compartments (k) and fractional volumes (v).