Intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion-weighted MR imaging in assessing and characterizing solitary pulmonary lesions

This study aimed to investigate the potential of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) diffusion-weighted MR imaging in assessing solitary pulmonary lesions (SPLs). Sixty-two patients with pathologically confirmed SPLs, including 51 and 11 cases of malignant and benign lesions, respectively, were assessed. Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) with 13 b values was used to derive apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and IVIM parameters, including true diffusion coefficient (D), pseudo-diffusion coefficient (D*), and perfusion fraction (f). Our results showed that, there was an excellent inter-observer agreement on the measurements of D and ADC between observers (inter-class correlation coefficient, ICC = 0.902 and 0.884, respectively). Meanwhile, f and D* showed good and substantial reproducibility (ICC = 0.787 and 0.623, respectively). D and ADC of malignant lesions were significantly lower than those of benign lesions (both P ≤ 0.001), while similar values were obtained in both groups for D* and f (both P > 0.05). In receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, D showed the highest area under curve (AUC) for distinguishing malignant from benign lesions, followed by ADC. Accompanying signs of SPLs have specific features on IVIM maps. In conclusion, IVIM provides functional information in characterizing SPLs which is helpful to differential diagnosis. D and ADC have a significantly higher diagnostic value than f and D*.