{Reference Type}: Journal Article
{Title}: R2* value derived from multi-echo Dixon technique can aid discrimination between benign and malignant focal liver lesions.
{Author}: Shi GZ;Chen H;Zeng WK;Gao M;Wang MZ;Zhang HT;Shen J;
{Journal}: World J Gastroenterol
{Volume}: 27
{Issue}: 12
{Year}: Mar 2021 28
{Factor}: 5.374
{DOI}: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i12.1182
{Abstract}: <B>BACKGROUND: </B>R2* estimation reflects the paramagnetism of the tumor tissue, which may be used to differentiate between benign and malignant liver lesions when contrast agents are contraindicated.<BR><B>OBJECTIVE: </B>To investigate whether R2* derived from multi-echo Dixon imaging can aid differentiating benign from malignant focal liver lesions (FLLs) and the impact of 2D region of interest (2D-ROI) and volume of interest (VOI) on the outcomes.<BR><B>METHODS: </B>We retrospectively enrolled 73 patients with 108 benign or malignant FLLs. All patients underwent conventional abdominal magnetic resonance imaging and multi-echo Dixon imaging. Two radiologists independently measured the mean R2* values of lesions using 2D-ROI and VOI approaches. The Bland-Altman plot was used to determine the interobserver agreement between R2* measurements. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to determine the reliability between the two readers. Mean R2* values were compared between benign and malignant FFLs using the nonparametric Mann-Whitney test. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to determine the diagnostic performance of R2* in differentiation between benign and malignant FFLs. We compared the diagnostic performance of R2* measured by 2D-ROI and VOI approaches.<BR><B>RESULTS: </B>This study included 30 benign and 78 malignant FLLs. The interobserver reproducibility of R2* measurements was excellent for the 2D-ROI (ICC = 0.994) and VOI (ICC = 0.998) methods. Bland-Altman analysis also demonstrated excellent agreement. Mean R2* was significantly higher for malignant than benign FFLs as measured by 2D-ROI (P < 0.001) and VOI (P < 0.001). The area under the curve (AUC) of R2* measured by 2D-ROI was 0.884 at a cut-off of 25.2/s, with a sensitivity of 84.6% and specificity of 80.0% for differentiating benign from malignant FFLs. R2* measured by VOI yielded an AUC of 0.875 at a cut-off of 26.7/s in distinguishing benign from malignant FFLs, with a sensitivity of 85.9% and specificity of 76.7%. The AUCs of R2* were not significantly different between the 2D-ROI and VOI methods.<BR><B>CONCLUSIONS: </B>R2* derived from multi-echo Dixon imaging whether by 2D-ROI or VOI can aid in differentiation between benign and malignant FLLs.