Scan-rescan reproducibility of parallel transmission based amide proton transfer imaging of brain tumors

To evaluate the reproducibility of amide proton transfer (APT) imaging of brain tumors using a parallel transmission-based technique.

Thirteen patients with brain tumors (four low-grade gliomas, three glioblastoma multiforme, five meningiomas, and one malignant lymphoma) were included in the study. APT imaging was conducted at 3T using a 2-channel parallel transmission scheme with a saturation time of 2 seconds and B1 amplitude of 2 μT. A 2D fast spin-echo sequence with driven-equilibrium refocusing was used for imaging. Z-spectra were obtained at 25 frequency offsets from -6 to +6 ppm (step 0.5 ppm). A point-by-point B0 correction was performed with a B0 map. A scan-rescan reproducibility test was performed in two sessions on separate days for each patient. The interval between the two sessions was 4.8 ± 3.5 days. Regions-of-interest (ROIs) were placed to include the whole tumor for each case. A mean and 90-percentile value of APT signal for the whole tumor histogram was calculated for each session. The between-session and within-session reproducibility was evaluated using linear regression analysis, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and a Bland-Altman plot.

The mean and 90-percentile values of the APT signal for whole tumor ROI showed excellent agreements between the two sessions, with R(2) of 0.91 and 0.96 in the linear regression analysis and ICC of 0.95 and 0.97, respectively.

Parallel transmission-based APT imaging of brain tumors showed good reproducibility.