Quantitative Analysis of Diffusion-Weighted Imaging of Focal Liver Lesions. Which Parameter is More Useful in the Differential Diagnosis?

Purpose: to determine the most useful quantitative parameter of diffusion-weighted images (DWI) in the differential diagnosis of focal liver lesions. Material and methods. DWI of 69 patients with 192 focal liver lesions (145 malignant and 47 benign) were evaluated. DWI was performed with b 0, b 300, b 600 gradients at MRI 3 T. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of lesion, liver, spleen, left kidney, body of pancreas, vertebral body, back muscle were calculated. The ratio (rADC) and difference (dADC) between ADC lesion and ADC other anatomical structures were calculated. The ROC analyses were performed in order to find more useful parameters in the differentiation of malignant and benign tumors, and to determine cut-off of them. Results. Mean ADC values of benign lesions were 2.346 ± 0.683 • 10^-3 mm²/s, malignant 1.109 ± 0.383 • 10^-3 mm²/s. More useful parameters were dADC(lesion-liver), rADC(lesion/liver). The mean dADC(lesion-liver) for benign and malignant tumors was (0.989 ± 0.657) • 10^-3 mm²/s, (-0.257 ± 0.333) • 10^-3 mm²/s, respectively. The mean rADC(lesion/liver) for benign tumors was 1.729 ± 0.528, for malignant 0.819 ± 0.250. Conclusion. dADC(lesion-liver) and rADC(lesion/liver) are more useful in the differential diagnosis of focal liver lesions.

диффузионно-взвешенные изображения, печень, измеряемый коэффициент диффузии, характеристика очаговых поражений, дифференциальная диагностика, diffusion-weighted imaging, liver, apparent diffusion coefficient, characteristic of focal lesions, differential diagnosis

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