Quantitative T1ρ MRI of the Head and Neck Discriminates Carcinoma and Benign Hyperplasia in the Nasopharynx

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: T1r 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 T1r imaging to characterize tissue by applying T1r 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 T1r imaging. T1r 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 T1r 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 T1r 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 T1r mean (62.14 versus 65.45 Â ms), SD (12.60 versus 17.73 Â ms), and skewness (0.61 versus 0.76) (all P , .05), but no difference in kurtosis (P ¼ . 18). The T1r SD showed the highest area under the curve of 0.95 compared with the T1r mean (area under the curve ¼ 0.72) and T1r skewness (area under the curve ¼ 0.72) for discriminating nasopharyngeal carcinoma and benign hyperplasia (all, P , .05). CONCLUSIONS:Quantitative T1r imaging has the potential to discriminate malignant from benign and normal tissue in the head and neck. ABBREVIATIONS: AHP ¼ adiabatic half passage; AUC ¼ area under the curve; NPC ¼ nasopharyngeal carcinoma; rAHP ¼ reverse adiabatic half passage; TSL ¼ time of spin-lock; PSNR ¼ peak signal-to-noise ratio

MRI detection of suspected nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Authors have attempted to distinguish this condition from NPC by assessing features such as lesion subsite, size, signal characteristics [ 33 ], and anatomic features such as the deep mucosal white line [ 19 , 33 ]. Advanced imaging techniques [ 40 ] have also been investigated as potential discriminators [ 41 – 43 ]. Notably, several papers by King and colleagues [ 19 , 20 ], some of which are included in this meta-analysis [ 16 , 28 , 30 ], have developed and applied multiparametric diagnostic criteria.…”

The utility of texture analysis based on quantitative synthetic magnetic resonance imaging in nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a preliminary study

“…First-order features and analysis, which are relatively easier to understand and implement compared with radiomics, reflect the distribution of voxel intensity with high reproducibility [19,20]. Previous studies [21][22][23][24] showed that whole-tumour first-order features, such as Skewness, Variance and so on, can potentially be used for diagnosis and survival prediction in NPC. The research in SyMRI demonstrated that Mean value could help in discriminating NPC from NPH, but the test-retest repeatability and tumour heterogeneity were not evaluated [13].…”

Characterization and correction of the effects of hepatic iron on T1ρ relaxation in the liver at 3.0T

“…It is reported that typical FSLs used in T 1ρ imaging are close to the dominant motion frequencies of macromolecules in tissues. Studies have reported that quantitative T 1ρ imaging is useful for various clinical applications, including imaging of osteoarthritis, 1-3 cancer, 4,5 brain diseases, [6][7][8][9][10] the spine, 11,12 cardiovascular diseases, 13,14 and chronic liver diseases. [15][16][17][18][19][20] Iron is common in human tissue.…”