MRI Evaluation for the Histologic Components of Soft-tissue Tumors: Comparison of MEDIC and Fast SE T2-weighted Imaging

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To compare Multi Echo Data Image Combination (MEDIC) and fast SE T2- weighted images with fat saturation (T2FS) to suggest more accurate evaluation of the histologic components of soft-tissue tumors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The experimental group included 25 histologic tissues (5 vascular, 4 neural, 4 fibrous, 4 hypercellular, 2 hemorrhagic necroses, 2 cystic, 2 lipoid, 1 myxoid stroma, and 1 thrombus) in 10 patients who had pathologically confirmed schwannoma (n = 3), hemangioma (n = 2), lipoma (n = 1), angiokeratoma (n = 1), synovial sarcoma (n = 1), liposarcoma (n = 1), and malignant fibrous histiocytoma (n = 1). The inhomogeneity values were measured using the standard deviation value (SD) divided by the mean value as SD presents an error amount similar to that of imaging heterogeneity. RESULTS: The inhomogeneity values of 25 histologic components were lower on MEDIC than those on T2FS (p < .001). CONCLUSION: We conclude that MEDIC is more accurate than T2FS for evaluating the tissue components of soft-tissue tumors using digitalized data because MEDIC images have far lower inhomogeneity.