Editorial for “Amide Proton Transfer‐Weighted Imaging Could Complement Apparent Diffusion Coefficient for More Lesion Characterization in Transition Zone of the Prostate”

Combining amide proton transfer-weighted and arterial spin labeling imaging to differentiate solitary brain metastases from glioblastomas

“…Proton transfer-weighted (APTw) imaging, a particular type of CEST technique, is used to demonstrate the exchangeable mobile proteins and peptides at low concentrations 12,13 , and a radio-frequency pulse is applied at the resonant frequency of 8.3 ppm to allow the exchange of amide protons with bulk water particles 14 , which enables indirect signal intensity acquisition. The APT value was shown to increase with the concentration of mobile proteins and peptides 15 , which was unrelated to gadolinium enhancement.…”

“…It has a high sensitivity for evaluating microvascular proliferation in the tumor using an endogenous intravascular tracer-hydrogen nuclei in blood and allows for the measurement of CBF values in brain tissue 18 . Recent clinical studies have demonstrated the usefulness of APTw and CBF values for evaluating brain tumors, including glioma 19,20 , meningioma 21 , lymphoma 22,23 , and other systemic neoplasms 12,24 . However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no reports comparing the diagnostic performance of APTw and ASL MRI in differentiating SBMs and GBMs.…”