Purpose:To retrospectively compare non-echo-planar (non-EP) diffusion-weighted (DW) imaging, delayed gadoliniumenhanced T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and the combination of both techniques in the evaluation of patients with cholesteatoma.
Materials and Methods:This institutional review board-approved study, for which the need to obtain informed consent was waived, included 57 patients clinically suspected of having a middle ear cholesteatoma without a history of surgery and 63 patients imaged before "second-look" surgery. Four blinded radiologists evaluated three sets of MR images: a set of delayed gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted images, a set of non-EP DW images, and a set of both kinds of images. Overall sensitivity, specifi city, negative predictive value (NPV), and positive predictive value (PPV), as well as intra-and interobserver agreement, were assessed and compared among methods. To correct for the correlation between different readings, a generalized estimating equations logistic regression model was fi tted. Results were compared with surgical results, which were regarded as the standard of reference.
Results:Sensitivity, specifi city, NPV, and PPV were signifi cantly different between the three methods ( P , .005). Sensitivity and specifi city, respectively, were 56.7% and 67.6% with the delayed gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted images and 82.6% and 87.2% with the non-EP DW images. Sensitivity for the combination of both kinds of images was 84.2%, while specifi city was 88.2%. The overall PPV was 88.0% for delayed gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted images, 96.0% for non-EP DW images, and 96.3%for the combination of both kinds of images. The overall NPV was 27.0% for delayed gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted images, 56.5% for non-EP DW images, and 59.6% for the combination of both kinds of images.
Conclusion:MR imaging for detection of middle ear cholesteatoma can be performed by using non-EP DW imaging sequences alone. Use of the non-EP DW imaging sequence combined with a delayed gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted sequence yielded no signifi cant increases in sensitivity, specifi city, NPV, or PPV over the use of the non-EP DW imaging sequence alone.q RSNA, 2010 Supplemental material: http://radiology.rsna.org/lookup /suppl
