Department of Radiology, Beijing Hospital, National Center of Gerontology, No. 1 Da-Hua Road, Dong Dan, Beijing, 100730, China.
Graduate School of Peking Union Medical College, No. 9 Dong Dan San Tiao, Beijing, 100730, China.
Mol Imaging Biol. 2019 Apr;21(2):348-355. doi: 10.1007/s11307-018-1248-1.
To prospectively evaluate the feasibility and capability of amide proton transfer-weighted (APTw) imaging for the characterization of head and neck tumors.
Twenty-nine consecutive patients with suspected head and neck tumors were enrolled in this study and underwent APTw magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on a 3.0-T MRI scanner. The patients were divided into malignant (n = 16) and benign (n = 13) groups, based on pathological results. A map of magnetization transfer ratio asymmetry at 3.5 ppm [MTR (3.5 ppm)] was generated for each patient. Interobserver agreement was evaluated and comparisons of MTR (3.5 ppm) were made between the malignant and benign groups. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to determine the appropriate threshold value of MTR (3.5 ppm) for the differentiation of malignant from benign tumors.
The intraclass correlation coefficients of the malignant and benign groups were 0.96 and 0.90, respectively, which indicated a good interobserver agreement. MTR (3.5 ppm) was significantly higher for the malignant group (3.66 ± 1.15 %) than for the benign group (1.94 ± 0.93 %, P < 0.001). APTw MRI revealed an area under the curve of 0.904 in discriminating these two groups, with a sensitivity of 81.3 %, a specificity of 92.3 %, and an accuracy of 86.2 %, at the threshold of 2.62 % of MTR (3.5 ppm).
APTw MRI is feasible for use in the head and neck tumors and is a valuable imaging biomarker for distinguishing malignant from benign lesions.
前瞻性评估酰胺质子转移加权（APTw）成像对头颈部肿瘤特征描述的可行性和能力。
本研究纳入 29 例疑似头颈部肿瘤患者，并在 3.0T MRI 扫描仪上进行 APTw 磁共振成像（MRI）。根据病理结果，将患者分为恶性（n=16）和良性（n=13）两组。为每位患者生成一个 3.5ppm 处磁化转移率不对称图[MTR（3.5ppm）]。评估了观察者间的一致性，并比较了恶性和良性组之间的 MTR（3.5ppm）。使用受试者工作特征分析确定 MTR（3.5ppm）区分良恶性肿瘤的合适阈值。
恶性和良性组的组内相关系数分别为 0.96 和 0.90，表明观察者间具有良好的一致性。恶性组的 MTR（3.5ppm）（3.66±1.15%）明显高于良性组（1.94±0.93%，P<0.001）。APTw MRI 在区分这两组时，曲线下面积为 0.904，灵敏度为 81.3%，特异性为 92.3%，准确性为 86.2%，MTR（3.5ppm）阈值为 2.62%。
APTw MRI 对头颈部肿瘤是可行的，是区分良恶性病变的有价值的成像生物标志物。
