Radiologic-pathologic analysis of contrast-enhanced and diffusion-weighted MR imaging in patients with HCC after
Julius Chapiro1, Laura D Wood, MingDe Lin
1From the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Division of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Sheikh Zayed Tower, Suite 7203, 1800 Orleans St, Baltimore, MD 21287 (J.C., M.L., R.D., R.S., Z.W., V.T., L.J.S., I.R.K., J.F.G.); Department of Pathology, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Md (L.D.W., T.C.); Philips Research, Medisys, Suresnes, France (D.L.); and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Md (V.C.).
Purpose:
To evaluate the diagnostic performance of three-dimensional ( 3D three-dimensional ) quantitative enhancement-based and diffusion-weighted volumetric magnetic resonance (MR) imaging assessment of hepatocellular carcinoma ( HCC hepatocellular carcinoma ) lesions in determining the extent of pathologic tumor necrosis after transarterial chemoembolization ( TACE transarterial chemoembolization ).
Materials And Methods:
This institutional review board-approved retrospective study included 17 patients with HCC hepatocellular carcinoma who underwent TACE transarterial chemoembolization before surgery. Semiautomatic 3D three-dimensional volumetric segmentation of target lesions was performed at the last MR examination before orthotopic liver transplantation or surgical resection. The amount of necrotic tumor tissue on contrast material-enhanced arterial phase MR images and the amount of diffusion-restricted tumor tissue on apparent diffusion coefficient ( ADC apparent diffusion coefficient ) maps were expressed as a percentage of the total tumor volume. Visual assessment of the extent of tumor necrosis and tumor response according to European Association for the Study of the Liver ( EASL European Association for the Study of the Liver ) criteria was performed. Pathologic tumor necrosis was quantified by using slide-by-slide segmentation. Correlation analysis was performed to evaluate the predictive values of the radiologic techniques.
Results:
At histopathologic examination, the mean percentage of tumor necrosis was 70% (range, 10%-100%). Both 3D three-dimensional quantitative techniques demonstrated a strong correlation with tumor necrosis at pathologic examination (R(2) = 0.9657 and R(2) = 0.9662 for quantitative EASL European Association for the Study of the Liver and quantitative ADC apparent diffusion coefficient , respectively) and a strong intermethod agreement (R(2) = 0.9585). Both methods showed a significantly lower discrepancy with pathologically measured necrosis (residual standard error [ RSE residual standard error ] = 6.38 and 6.33 for quantitative EASL European Association for the Study of the Liver and quantitative ADC apparent diffusion coefficient , respectively), when compared with non- 3D three-dimensional techniques ( RSE residual standard error = 12.18 for visual assessment).
Conclusion:
This radiologic-pathologic correlation study demonstrates the diagnostic accuracy of 3D three-dimensional quantitative MR imaging techniques in identifying pathologically measured tumor necrosis in HCC hepatocellular carcinoma lesions treated with TACE transarterial chemoembolization .
