Amide proton transfer imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging in differentiating histological grade of cervical squamous cell carcinoma / 中国医学影像技术

ABSTRACT

Objective: To explore the value of amide proton transfer imaging (APT) and diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) in differentiating histological grade of cervical squamous cell carcinoma. Methods: APT and DKI data of 36 patients with cervical squamous cell carcinoma, including 11 with high differentiated tumor (high differentiated group), 16 with moderate differentiated tumor (moderate differentiated group)and 9 with poor differentiated tumor (poor differentiated group) were retrospectively analyzed. The magnetization transfer ratio asymmetry (MTRasym), mean kurtosis (MK) and mean diffusion (MD) values of tumors were measured on the corresponding pseudo color pictures, respectively. The differences of MTRasym, MK and MD values were compared among 3 groups. ROC curve was used to analyze the diagnostic efficiency of each parameter in differentiating histological grade of cervical squamous cell carcinoma, and the correlation of each parameter with histological grade was analyzed. Results: No statistical difference of MTRasym, MK nor MD value was found among 3 groups (F=25.82, 15.21, 15.35, all P<0.01). MTRasym had the best diagnostic efficacy of differentiating high and moderate, moderate and poor differentiated cervical squamous cell carcinoma (AUC=0.85, 0.90, both P<0.01), which was better than MD (AUC=0.83, 0.78, P<0.01) and MK (AUC=0.82, 0.82, P<0.01), respectively. MK and MTRasym values were positively correlated(r=0.78, 0.69, both P<0.01) and MD value was negatively correlated with pathological grade of cervical squamous cell carcinoma (r=-0.68, P<0.01). Conclusion: Both APT and DKI parameters are helpful to differentiating pathological grades of cervical squamous cell carcinoma. Compared with DKI, APT has higher diagnostic efficacy.