Amide Proton Transfer-weighted MRI in the Diagnosis of Major Salivary Gland Tumors

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 9; no. 1; p. 8349
• Main Authors: Bae, Yun Jung, Choi, Byung Se, Jeong, Woo-Jin, Jung, Young Ho, Park, Jung Hyun, Sunwoo, Leonard, Jung, Cheolkyu, Kim, Jae Hyoung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 06.06.2019; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 59/57; 692/4028/67/1857; 692/53/2421; 692/699/67/2321; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Amides - chemistry; Benign; Cell Differentiation; Contrast Media - pharmacology; Diagnosis; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Female; Head and neck; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Magnetic resonance imaging; Male; Middle Aged; multidisciplinary; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Observer Variation; Oral cancer; Protons; Retrospective Studies; ROC Curve; Salivary gland; Salivary Gland Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sensitivity and Specificity; Tumors; Young Adult
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-44820-0

Amide proton transfer-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (APTw-MRI), which is effective in tumor characterization, has expanded its role in the head and neck. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic ability of APTw-MRI in differentiating malignant from benign major salivary gland tumors compared with diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE)-MRI. Between December 2017 and November 2018, 38 subjects, who were diagnosed with major salivary gland tumors and who underwent preoperative 3 T MRI, including APTw-MRI, DWI, and DCE-MRI, were included in this retrospective study. Twenty-three subjects had benign tumors, and fifteen had malignancies. APTw-signals of the tumors were measured and compared according to the histopathological diagnosis. Using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, diagnostic performance of APTw-MRI was evaluated and compared with DWI and DCE-MRI using DeLong test. The maximum, mean, and median APTw-signals were significantly higher in malignant than in benign tumors ( P  < 0.001). The mean and maximum APTw-signals showed excellent area under the curve for predicting malignant tumors (0.948 and 0.939), which were significantly higher than the combining use of DWI and DCE-MRI (0.780) ( P  = 0.021 and 0.028). Therefore, APTw-MRI could be a useful tool for differentiating malignant from benign major salivary gland tumors, and can be applicable in the clinical setting.