Synopsis
More
and more studies have been attributed to the evaluation of IVIM analysis for
disease characterization or response assessment, but its measurement
reproducibility when applied in clinical practice and research
still be in controversial. There is only few prior
research on repeatability of IVIM-derived parameters of hepatocellular
carcinoma (HCC) as well as the choice of free-breathing
(FB). In this study we used our own data to explore the reproducibility of IVIM-derived
parameters, ADC(0,500) and ADCtotal of HCC.Purpose
To
determine the measurement reproducibility of IVIM
(intravoxel incoherent motion) diffusion parameters, ADC (apparent diffusion
coefficient)
(0,500) and ADC
total of large Hepatocellular carcinoma.
Materials
and Methods
Twenty-seven
patients (31 lesions) with primary HCC underwent MRI examinations including two repeat IVIM DWI sequences with
12 b values (0, 10, 20, 30, 40,
50, 70, 100, 200, 300, 500, 800 s/mm2). Regions of interest (ROIs) were drawn within the outer border 1 mm from
peripheral margin of
the selected HCC(Figure) to derive intravoxel incoherent motion
(IVIM) parameters D, D*, and
PF, ADC
(0,500) and ADC
total (all
12 b values) by
a Bayesian method. Short-term measurement reproducibility of IVIM
parameters and ADCs were assessed by measuring interclass
correlation coefficients (ICCs), coefficient of variation (CV) and
Bland–Altman limits of agreements (BA-LA).
Results
The intra- and interobserver ICCs were good for HCC
except for D⃰ value ranging from 0.829 to 0.946. The reproducibility
was good For D and ADC
total (CV 15.5%, 14.4% and 13.1%, 10.8% respectively) and was poor for D⃰ and PF (CV values were >30%) for both first
and second DWI series, thus suggesting less variability of D and ADC
total.
The strongest 95 %
Bland–Altman limits for agreements (BA-LA) of short-term measurement reproducibility was noted for ADC
total (-15.9% to 18.2%), followed by D (-21.0% to 30.7%) and ADC
(0,500) (-37.6% to 46.7%). Very wide 95 % confidence limits were
observed for D⃰ (-115.1% to 128.7%) and PF(−96.7% to 98.0 %). The
reproducibility of IVIM
Parameters and ADCs for lesions 50 mm or larger in diameter was better
than that for lesions smaller than 50 mm.
Conclusion
D* and PF are perfusion-sensitive parameters calculated from
low b values at which blood magnetization dominates the signal attenuation,
they are potentially more sensitive to measurement uncertainty resulting from capillary
perfusion and signal to noise variations, thus D⃰ and PF show considerable
measurement variability
[1,2]. D and ADC
total may be potentially more meaningful
quantitative parameters in clinical practice and the larger lesion is
preferable when applying ADCs from DW imaging to the monitoring of treatment
response of hepatic disease, as using more b values gives more accurate ADC
value, especially where the likely ADC values are not kown a priori, at higher
b values, pseudodiffusion account for only a small proportion of the measured
signal in each imaging voxel and may tease out the effects of microcapillary
perfusion
[3]. The larger lesion is preferable when applying ADCs from DW imaging
to the monitoring of treatment response of hepatic disease. Yeon Kim Set al
[4] turned out that ADC measurement of malignant hepatic tumors tended to be
more reproducible for larger rather than smaller lesions, they pointed out that
this may have resulted from the partial volume averaging effect, which probably
more severely affected the ADC measurement of smaller lesions.
Acknowledgements
More
and more studies have been attributed to the evaluation of IVIM analysis for
disease characterization or response assessment, but its measurement
reproducibility when applied in clinical practice and research
still be in controversial. There is only few prior
research on repeatability of IVIM-derived parameters of hepatocellular
carcinoma (HCC) as well as the choice of free-breathing
(FB). In this study we used our own data to explore the reproducibility of IVIM-derived
parameters, ADC(0,500) and ADCtotal of HCC.References
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