Histogram analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery in discriminating...

This study evaluates the diagnostic performance of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and T2 fluid-attenuation inversion recovery (T2 FLAIR) in discriminating between new white matter (WM) enhancing lesions (ELs) and non-enhancing lesions (NELs) in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.

Thirty MS patients with a new solitary WM lesion on brain MRI were analyzed. A region-of-interest was drawn on all lesions and the contralateral normal-appearing WM (NAWM) on T2 FLAIR and ADC maps. Normalized ratios of T2 FLAIR and ADC were calculated by dividing lesion value by the contralateral NAWM. Histogram analysis was performed on the T2 FLAIR, ADC values, and their normalized ratios. Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare histogram parameters and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis determined the area under the curve (AUC).

T2 FLAIR histogram parameters were not significantly different between ELs and NELs. Several EL ADC histogram parameters, including maximum and mean, were significantly higher than NELs (p = 0.006 to p = 0.031). There was a trend toward significantly higher maximum ADC in ELs after adjusting for multiple comparisons (p = 0.054). The standard deviation of T2 FLAIR (AUC 0.70), maximum ADC (AUC 0.79), and normalized maximum ADC ratio (AUC 0.75) were among histogram parameters with the highest diagnostic performance. A maximum ADC cutoff of 1274 × 10^-6 mm²/s provided a 0.86 sensitivity and 0.75 specificity.

In patients with contraindications to gadolinium or concerns with gadolinium brain deposition, consideration may be given to ADC and T2 FLAIR as potential noncontrast methods for the evaluation of active MS lesions.