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A feasibility study of magnetization transfer imaging on the evaluation of fibrosis in pancreatic duct adenocarcinoma
SHEN Zhiqiu  YANG Mingming  LÜ Junxin  ZHANG Jinggang  CHEN Jie 

Cite this article as: SHEN Z Q, YANG M M, LÜ J X, et al. A feasibility study of magnetization transfer imaging on the evaluation of fibrosis in pancreatic duct adenocarcinoma[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2025, 16(5): 44-48. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.05.007.


[Abstract] Objective To evaluate the ability of magnetization transfer imaging (MTI) in assessing the fibrosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).Materials and Methods The clinical, imaging and pathological data of 53 patients with PDAC were analyzed retrospectively. All patients underwent MTI examination before surgery and the MTR values of the tumors were measured. Masson staining was used to evaluate tumor fibrosis. The percentage of tumor fibrous area were calculated by ImageJ software. Based on the degree of fibrosis, all patients were divided into two groups: high and low fibrosis. Independent sample t test and one-way ANOVA were used to compare the differences of the magnetic transfer rate (MTR) values and general characteristics between high- and low-grade fibrosis groups. Spearman correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between MTR value and fibrosis degree of PDAC. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of MTR value for PDAC fibrosis classification.Results The MTR value of the low-grade fibrosis group was (0.158 ± 0.053), and that of the high-grade fibrosis group was (0.230 ± 0.063). There was a significant difference of MTR values between the two groups (t = -4.528, P < 0.001), while other general characteristics were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). ROC curve analysis showed that the AUC value of the MTR in evaluating the fibrosis of PDAC patients was 0.822. When a threshold was 0.496, the sensitivity and the specificity were 87.5% and 62.1%, respectively.Conclusions As a non-invasive imaging index, MTR value has a potential application value in the evaluation of PDAC fibrosis.
[Keywords] pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma；magnetization transfer；magnetic resonance imaging；quantitative analysis；fibrosis

SHEN Zhiqiu1, 2   YANG Mingming1   LÜ Junxin1   ZHANG Jinggang1   CHEN Jie1*  

1 Department of Radiology, Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Changzhou 213000, China

2 Department of Radiology, Yancheng Tinghu District People's Hospital, Yancheng 224000, China

Corresponding author: CHEN J, E-mail: slqyuer@126.com

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2024-11-29
Accepted  2025-03-10
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.05.007
Cite this article as: SHEN Z Q, YANG M M, LÜ J X, et al. A feasibility study of magnetization transfer imaging on the evaluation of fibrosis in pancreatic duct adenocarcinoma[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2025, 16(5): 44-48. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.05.007.

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