Intra-individual comparison of conventional and simultaneous multislice-accelerated diffusion-weighted imaging in upper abdominal solid organs: value of ADC normalization using the spleen as a reference organ

• Published in: Abdominal radiology (New York) Vol. 44; no. 5; pp. 1808 - 1815
• Main Authors: Jang, Weon, Song, Ji Soo, Kwak, Hyo Sung, Hwang, Seung Bae, Paek, Mun Young
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-05-2019
• Subjects: Gastroenterology; Hepatobiliary; Hepatology; Imaging; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Radiology; Spleen; Magnetic resonance imaging; Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging; Abdomen
• ISSN: 2366-004X; 2366-0058
• DOI: 10.1007/s00261-019-01924-5

Purpose
To compare the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value of conventional diffusion-weighted imaging (cDWI) to simultaneous multislice-accelerated DWI (sDWI) and to evaluate the possibility of ADC normalization using the spleen as a reference organ.
Methods
We retrospectively evaluated 92 patients (68 men, 24 women; mean age 60.0 years) who underwent liver magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) including both cDWI and sDWI. sDWI was obtained with an acceleration factor of 2. ADC values were measured from the right liver lobe, left liver lobe, spleen, pancreas, right kidney, and left kidney. ADC values of the spleen were used for normalization. Paired sample
t
test, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and Bland–Altman method were used for statistical analysis.
Results
ADC values of cDWI were significantly lower than sDWI in all six anatomic regions (
p 
< 0.001). The mean difference in ADC value between cDWI and sDWI ranged from 0.048 to 0.125 × 10
−3
 mm
2
/s. ADC values from cDWI and sDWI showed a moderate to very high positive correlation (
p 
< 0.001). After ADC normalization using the spleen as a reference organ, there was no significant difference between normalized ADC of cDWI and sDWI in all 5 anatomic regions (
p 
= 0.11 − 0.74).
Conclusions
Normalization of ADC using the spleen could be useful for comparing upper abdominal organs acquired with either cDWI or sDWI in longitudinal and follow-up studies.