The Golden-Angle Radial Sparse Parallel Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Rectal Perfusion: Performance for Prediction of Lymphovascular Invasion in Rectal Cancer

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to determine whether the dual-parameter approach combined with either time-resolved angiography with stochastic trajectories (TWIST) or golden-angle radial sparse parallel (GRASP) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) has superior diagnostic performance in predicting pathological lymphovascular invasion (pLVI) rectal cancer when compared with traditional single-parameter evaluations using DWI alone. Materials and Methods: Patients with pathologically confirmed rectal cancer were enrolled. Perfusion (influx forward volume transfer constant [Ktrans] and rate constant [Kep]) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) were measured by two researchers. For both sequences, areas under receiver operating characteristic (ROCs) to predict pLVI-positive rectal cancer were compared. Results: A total of 179 patients were enrolled in our study. A combined analysis of ADC and perfusion parameters (Ktrans) acquired with GRASP yielded a higher diagnostic performance compared with diffusion parameters alone (area under the curve, 0.91±0.03 vs. 0.71±0.06, P<0.001); However, ADC with GRASP-acquired Kep and ADC with TWIST-acquired perfusion parameters (Ktrans or Kep) did not offer any additional benefit. Conclusion: The Ktrans of the GRASP technique improved the diagnostic performance of multiparametric MRI to predict rectal cancers with pLVI-positive. In contrast, TWIST did not achieve this effect.