The Use of the Levenberg-Marquardt and Variable Projection Curve-Fitting Algorithm in Intravoxel Incoherent Motion Method for DW-MRI Data Analysis

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performances of different algorithms for diffusion parameters estimation in intravoxel incoherent motion method for diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) data analysis. Traditionally, the method of non-linear least squares analysis by means of Levenberg–Marquardt algorithms has been used to estimate the parameters obtained from exponential decay data. In this study, we evaluated the Variable Projection curve-fitting algorithm and the performance of two non-linear regression methods when single and multiple starting points were used. Analysis was done on simulation data to which different amounts of Gaussian noise had been added. The performance of two non-linear regression methods was compared using the residual sum of squares and the number of failures in data fitting. We conclude that the VarPro algorithm is superior to the LM algorithm for curve fitting in intravoxel incoherent motion method for DW-MRI data analysis.