Differentiation of microinfiltration and simple-edema areas in VX2 bone tumors by diffusion kurtosis imaging in...

Dual-energy computed tomography, diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) can be used to distinguish microinvasion areas of malignant bone tumors. However, reports of diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) to determine the extent of intramedullary infiltration are relatively rare.

To assess the application value of MR-DKI in differentiating areas of microinfiltration and simple edema in rabbit bone VX2 tumor models.

Conventional MRI and DKI were performed on 25 successfully constructed rabbit VX2 bone tumor models. We acquired a midline sagittal section of the tumor for hematoxylin and eosin staining. Using pathological findings as the gold standard and combining them with MRI data, strict point-to-point control was performed to delineate regions of interest (ROIs) in the microinfiltration and simple-edema areas of bone tumors for quantitative measurement of mean diffusivity (MD) and mean kurtosis (MK). MD and MK values between microinfiltration and simple-edema areas were compared using an independent sample t-test, and the diagnostic values were evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

In comparison with the simple-edema area, the micro-infiltration area demonstrated significantly smaller MD values and larger MK values (P < 0.05), and MD showed a better area under the curve (AUC) than MK (AUC = 0.884 vs. AUC = 0.690) for distinguishing the microinfiltration area from the simple-edema area. The optimal cutoff MD value was 1108.5 mm²/s with a sensitivity of 84% and specificity of 84%.

DKI can distinguish the microinfiltration and simple-edema areas of malignant bone tumors in animal experiments.