Measurement of cellular-interstitial water exchange time in tumors based on diffusion-time-dependent diffusional...

To assess the feasibility of using diffusion-time-dependent diffusional kurtosis imaging (tDKI) to measure cellular-interstitial water exchange time (τ_ex ) in tumors, both in animals and in humans.

Preclinical tDKI studies at 7 T were performed with the GL261 glioma model and the 4T1 mammary tumor model injected into the mouse brain. Clinical studies were performed at 3 T with women who had biopsy-proven invasive ductal carcinoma. tDKI measurement was conducted using a diffusion-weighted STEAM pulse sequence with multiple diffusion times (20-800 ms) at a fixed echo time, while keeping the b-values the same (0-3000 s/mm² ) by adjusting the diffusion gradient strength. The tDKI data at each diffusion time t were used for a weighted linear least-squares fit method to estimate the diffusion-time-dependent diffusivity, D(t), and diffusional kurtosis, K(t).

Both preclinical and clinical studies showed that, when diffusion time t ≥ 200 ms, D(t) did not have a noticeable change while K(t) decreased monotonically with increasing diffusion time in tumors and t ≥ 100 ms for the cortical ribbon of the mouse brain. The estimated τ_ex averaged median and interquartile range (IQR) of GL261 and 4T1 tumors were 93 (IQR = 89) ms and 68 (78) ms, respectively. For the cortical ribbon, the estimated τ_ex averaged median and IQR were 41 (34) ms for C57BL/6 and 30 (17) ms for BALB/c. For invasive ductal carcinoma, the estimated τ_ex median and IQR of the two breast cancers were 70 (94) and 106 (92) ms.

The results of this proof-of-concept study substantiate the feasibility of using tDKI to measure cellular-interstitial water exchange time without using an exogenous contrast agent.