1 Department of Radiodiagnosis and Imaging, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Sector 12, Chandigarh 160012, India.
2 Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2017 Dec;209(6):1312-1320. doi: 10.2214/AJR.17.18002. Epub 2017 Sep 27.
Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps are usually generated by builtin software provided by the MRI scanner vendors; however, various open-source postprocessing software packages are available for image manipulation and parametric map generation. The purpose of this study is to establish the reproducibility of absolute ADC values obtained using different postprocessing software programs.
DW images with three b values were obtained with a 1.5-T MRI scanner, and the trace images were obtained. ADC maps were automatically generated by the in-line software provided by the vendor during image generation and were also separately generated on postprocessing software. These ADC maps were compared on the basis of ROIs using paired t test, Bland-Altman plot, mountain plot, and Passing-Bablok regression plot.
There was a statistically significant difference in the mean ADC values obtained from the different postprocessing software programs when the same baseline trace DW images were used for the ADC map generation.
For using ADC values as a quantitative cutoff for histologic characterization of tissues, standardization of the postprocessing algorithm is essential across processing software packages, especially in view of the implementation of vendor-neutral archiving.
ADC 图通常由 MRI 扫描仪供应商提供的内置软件生成；然而，也有各种开源的后处理软件包可用于图像操作和参数图生成。本研究的目的是建立使用不同后处理软件程序获得的绝对 ADC 值的可重复性。
使用 1.5-T MRI 扫描仪获得三个 b 值的 DW 图像，并获得迹线图像。在图像生成过程中，通过供应商提供的在线软件自动生成 ADC 图，并在事后处理软件上分别生成 ADC 图。使用配对 t 检验、Bland-Altman 图、山图和 Passing-Bablok 回归图基于 ROI 对这些 ADC 图进行比较。
当使用相同的基线迹线 DW 图像生成 ADC 图时，来自不同后处理软件程序的平均 ADC 值存在统计学上的显著差异。
为了将 ADC 值用作组织组织学特征的定量截止值，在后处理软件包之间，必须对后处理算法进行标准化，特别是考虑到实施供应商中立的存档。
