Texture Analysis of High b‐Value Diffusion‐Weighted Imaging for Evaluating Consistency of Pituitary Macroadenomas

• Published in: Journal of magnetic resonance imaging Vol. 51; no. 5; pp. 1507 - 1513
• Main Authors: Su, Chun‐Qiu, Zhang, Xuan, Pan, Ting, Chen, Xiao‐Tian, Chen, Wen, Duan, Shao‐Feng, Ji, Jing, Hu, Wei‐Xing, Lu, Shan‐Shan, Hong, Xun‐Ning
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.05.2020; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Auditory discrimination; Consistency; Diagnostic systems; Diffusion; Diffusion coefficient; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Entropy; Field strength; high b‐value diffusion‐weighted imaging; Humans; Image acquisition; Image segmentation; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Medical imaging; Parameters; Performance evaluation; Pituitary; pituitary macroadenomas; Pituitary Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Population studies; Regression analysis; Retrospective Studies; ROC Curve; Statistical analysis; Statistical tests; Texture; texture analysis; Tumors; pituitary macroadenomas; high b-value diffusion-weighted imaging; texture analysis
• ISSN: 1053-1807; 1522-2586; 1522-2586
• DOI: 10.1002/jmri.26941

Background Preoperative evaluation of the consistency of pituitary macroadenomas is important for neurosurgeons to prepare the surgical plan. Purpose To evaluate the diagnostic performance of texture analysis (TA) of diffusion‐weighted imaging (DWI) at a standard b‐value (b = 1000 s/mm2) and a high b‐value (b = 2000 s/mm2) for their ability to assess the tumor consistency of pituitary macroadenomas. Study Type Retrospective. Population/Subjects Fifty patients with histologically confirmed pituitary macroadenomas were classified as soft (n = 37) or hard (n = 13) types. Field Strength/Sequence Coronal T2‐weighted imaging (T2WI), Readout Segmentation of Long Variable Echo‐trains (RESOLVE) DWI at b = 1000 s/mm2 and b = 2000 s/mm2 were acquired with 3.0T MRI. Assessment The corresponding apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps (ADC1000 and ADC2000) were registered to T2WI. Regions of interest (ROIs) were manually drawn along the solid part of the tumor from the coregistered T2WI‐ADC images. The texture parameters from T2WI, ADC1000, and ADC2000 were acquired. Statistical Tests The texture parameters were compared between the two types by using unpaired Student's t‐test. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and logistic regression analyses were used to assess their diagnostic performance. Results Significant differences in TA parameters of ADC1000 and ADC2000 were observed between soft and hard types (P < 0.05 for all), whereas the TA of T2WI resulted in no significant difference (P > 0.05 for all). TA of ADC2000 provided a superior diagnostic performance compared with that of ADC1000 (P = 0.038). A combination of mean value and entropy of ADC2000 yielded an AUC, a sensitivity, and a specificity of 0.911, 78.4% and 92.3%, respectively. Data Conclusion TA of ADC values were useful for assessing the tumor consistency of pituitary macroadenomas. ADC2000 may facilitate better type discrimination. Level of Evidence: 3 Technical Efficacy Stage: 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2020;51:1507–1513.