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Technical Article
Preliminary study of 3D-APTw imaging in the evaluation of clinical scanning feasibility and image quality of primary liver cancer
QI Xiaohui  WANG Qi  SHEN Zhiwei  DUAN Mengting  LIU Xiang  PAN Jiangyang  FAN Xueli  JIA Litao  WANG Yaning  DU Yu 

Cite this article as: QI X H, WANG Q, SHEN Z W, et al. Preliminary study of 3D-APTw imaging in the evaluation of clinical scanning feasibility and image quality of primary liver cancer[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2024, 15(3): 163-169. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2024.03.026.


[Abstract] Objective To investigate the feasibility of parameter optimized 3 dimensions amide proton transfer weighted (3D-APTw) imaging for image quality evaluation and clinical scanning in primary liver cancer.Materials and Methods A total of 109 patients with suspected primary liver cancer were prospectively collected from October 2020 to February 2022. Philips 3.0 T MRI equipment was used for scanning, and T1WI, T2WI, diffusion-weighted imaging, amide proton transfer weighted (ATPw) and multi-phase enhanced images were collected. The machine automatically generates an 3D-APTw image of the liver corrected by B0. The scanning success rate and calculation success rate of 3D-APTw imaging were calculated. Kendall agreement consistency test was used to analyze the subjective score of inter-observer and intra-observer APTw image quality. SNR and CNR, APTw of tumor and liver were measured for cases with subjective scores above 3 and calculated and the coefficient of variation was calculated for each parameter value. Intra-group correlation coefficient was used to analyze the consistency of intra-observer and inter-observer repeatability measurements.Results Among the 109 patients, 11 patients had signal loss in the lesion area in 3D-APTw images, and the scanning success rate was 89.91% (98/109). Among the remaining 98 patients, 78 patients had APTw image subjective score of more than 3 points, and the calculation success rate was 71.56% (78/109). The intraobserver and interobserver subjective scores of 3D-APTw image quality with a correlation coefficient of 0.771 and 0.692, P<0.01. ICC of intraobserver and interobserver agreement with APTw values in tumor tissue was 0.822 and 0.811, while ICC of intraobserver agreement with APTw, SNR and CNR in hepatic tissue was 0.675, 0.634, 0.666. ICC of interobserver agreement with APTw, SNR and CNR in hepatic tissue was 0.614, 0.290, 0.560. APTw value of tumor tissue was higher than that of liver tissue [(2.55±0.08) % vs. (1.45±0.07) %)], and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). The coefficients of variation of APTw values in tumor tissue and liver were 30.40% and 44.40%, respectively. SNR and CNR were 25.92±18.50 and 3.35±3.20. The coefficient of variation was 71.40% for SNR and 90.00% for CNR.Conclusions Parameter-optimized 3D-APTw imaging can be used for clinical scanning of primary liver cancer, but it is prone to signal loss or artifact due to the influence of respiratory movement, gallbladder or blood vessels, so there is still room for improvement in parameter setting and imaging technology to further optimize its image quality.
[Keywords] primary liver cancer;diagnostic feasibility;image quality;3 dimensions-amide proton transfer weighted imaging;magnetic resonance imaging

QI Xiaohui1   WANG Qi1*   SHEN Zhiwei2   DUAN Mengting1   LIU Xiang1   PAN Jiangyang1   FAN Xueli1   JIA Litao1   WANG Yaning1   DU Yu1  

1 Department of CT/MRI, No. 4 Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050000, China

2 Philips (China) Investment Co., Ltd., Beijing 100600, China

Corresponding author: WANG Q, E-mail: wq20@hotmail.com

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2023-05-07
Accepted  2023-11-24
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2024.03.026
Cite this article as: QI X H, WANG Q, SHEN Z W, et al. Preliminary study of 3D-APTw imaging in the evaluation of clinical scanning feasibility and image quality of primary liver cancer[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2024, 15(3): 163-169. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2024.03.026.

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