Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: T1ρ imaging is a new quantitative MR imaging pulse sequence with the potential to discriminate between malignant and benign tissue. In this study, we evaluated the capability of T1ρ imaging to characterize tissue by applying T1ρ imaging to malignant and benign tissue in the nasopharynx and to normal tissue in the head and neck.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Participants with undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma and benign hyperplasia of the nasopharynx prospectively underwent T1ρ imaging. T1ρ measurements obtained from the histogram analysis for nasopharyngeal carcinoma in 43 participants were compared with those for benign hyperplasia and for normal tissue (brain, muscle, and parotid glands) in 41 participants using the Mann-Whitney U test. The area under the curve of significant T1ρ measurements was calculated and compared using receiver operating characteristic analysis and the Delong test, respectively. A P < . 05 indicated statistical significance.
RESULTS: There were significant differences in T1ρ measurements between nasopharyngeal carcinoma and benign hyperplasia and between nasopharyngeal carcinoma and normal tissue (all, P < . 05). Compared with benign hyperplasia, nasopharyngeal carcinoma showed a lower T1ρ mean (62.14 versus 65.45 × ms), SD (12.60 versus 17.73 × ms), and skewness (0.61 versus 0.76) (all P < .05), but no difference in kurtosis (P = . 18). The T1ρ SD showed the highest area under the curve of 0.95 compared with the T1ρ mean (area under the curve = 0.72) and T1ρ skewness (area under the curve = 0.72) for discriminating nasopharyngeal carcinoma and benign hyperplasia (all, P < .05).
CONCLUSIONS: Quantitative T1ρ imaging has the potential to discriminate malignant from benign and normal tissue in the head and neck.
ABBREVIATIONS:
- AHP
- adiabatic half passage
- AUC
- area under the curve
- NPC
- nasopharyngeal carcinoma
- rAHP
- reverse adiabatic half passage
- TSL
- time of spin-lock
- PSNR
- peak signal-to-noise ratio
Footnotes
Disclosures: Weitian Chen—UNRELATED: Employment: The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Grants/Grants Pending: The Chinese University of Hong Kong*; Patents (Planned, Pending or Issued): a pending US patent and a pending Chinese patient, W. Chen and B. Jiang; System and Method for Continuous Wave Constant Amplitude On-Resonance and Off-resonance Spin-Lock for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, US 15/663,254, US patent, pending; CN 201710649663.X, pending, Comments: no money received.; OTHER RELATIONSHIPS: I am a shareholder of the company lluminatio Medical Technology limited. Wai Kei Jacky Lam—UNRELATED: Patents (Planned, Pending or Issued): patent on clinical applications of circulating DNA*; Stock/Stock Options: Grail. Queenie Chan—UNRELATED: Employment: Queenie Chan is an employee of Philips Healthcare, but she had no control over inclusion of any data or information that might have presented a conflict of interest. There are no actual or potential conflicts of interest to declare in relation to this article. Edwin P. Hui—UNRELATED: Consultancy: Merck Sharp & Dohme, Comments: Advisory Board; Payment for Lectures Including Service on Speakers Bureaus: Merck Sharp & Dohme, Merck Serono, Comments: speakers honoraria. K.C. Allen Chan—RELATED: Consulting Fee or Honorarium: Grail; UNRELATED: Board Membership: Take2, DRA; Consultancy: Grail; Grants/Grants Pending: Grail, Cirina*; Patents (Planned, Pending or Issued): I am an inventor of over 70 patents; parts of the portfolio have been licensed to Illumina, Grail, Xcelom, DRA; Royalties: Grail, Sequenom, Illumina, Take2, Xcelom; Stock/Stock Options: Grail, DRA, Take2; Travel/Accommodations/Meeting Expenses Unrelated to Activities Listed: Bio-Rad Laboratories. *Money paid to the institution.
Paper previously presented, in part, at: European Society Head and Neck Society Refresh, October 3–5, 2019; Sicily, Italy.
- © 2020 by American Journal of Neuroradiology
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