Shen Liting, Yuan Ying, Liu Jin, Cheng Yue, Liao Qian, Shi Rongchao, Xiong Tianyu, Xu Hui, Wang Liang, Yang Zhenghan
Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, 100050, Beijing, China (L.S., Y.Y., J.L., Y.C., Q.L., R.S., H.X., L.W., Z.Y.).
Department of Urology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, 100050, Beijing, China (T.X.).
Acad Radiol. 2025 Oct;32(10):5964-5974. doi: 10.1016/j.acra.2025.06.059. Epub 2025 Jul 18.
To evaluate image quality and diagnostic performance of prostate biparametric MRI (bi-MRI) with deep learning reconstruction (DLR).
This prospective study included 61 adult male urological patients undergoing prostate MRI with standard-of-care (SOC) and fast protocols. Sequences included T2-weighted imaging (T2WI), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps. DLR images were generated from FAST datasets. Three groups (SOC, FAST, DLR) were compared using: (1) five-point Likert scale, (2) signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), (3) lesion slope profiles, (4) dorsal capsule edge rise distance (ERD). PI-RADS scores were assigned to dominant lesions. ADC values were measured in histopathologically confirmed cases. Diagnostic performance was analyzed via receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves (accuracy/sensitivity/specificity). Statistical tests included Friedman test, one-way ANOVA with post hoc analyses, and DeLong test for ROC comparisons (P<0.05).
FAST scanning protocols reduced acquisition time by nearly half compared to the SOC scanning protocol. When compared to T2WI, DLR significantly improved SNR, CNR, slope profile, and ERD (P < 0.05). Similarly, DLR significantly enhanced SNR, CNR, and image sharpness when compared to DWI (P < 0.05). No significant differences were observed in PI-RADS scores and ADC values between groups (P > 0.05). The areas under the ROC curves, sensitivity, and specificity of ADC values for distinguishing benign and malignant lesions remained consistent (P > 0.05).
DLR enhances image quality in fast prostate bi-MRI while preserving PI-RADS classification accuracy and ADC diagnostic performance.
