Turbo Gradient and Spin Echo PROPELLER-Diffusion Weighted Imaging for Orbital Tumors: A Comparative Study With...

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Medical Imaging
• Oncology

Background:

• Orbital tumors require high-quality imaging for accurate diagnosis and characterization.
• Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is crucial for evaluating orbital lesions.
• Traditional readout-segmented echo-planar imaging (rs-EPI) can suffer from artifacts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the image quality and diagnostic performance of TGSE-PROPELLER-DWI and rs-EPI for orbital tumors.
• To assess qualitative and quantitative differences between the two DWI techniques.
• To evaluate the ability of each technique to differentiate benign from malignant orbital tumors.

Main Methods:

• 43 patients with suspected orbital tumors underwent 3T MRI using both TGSE-PROPELLER-DWI and rs-EPI.
• Image quality, geometric distortion, susceptibility artifacts, and lesion conspicuity were qualitatively scored.
• Quantitative analysis included contrast-to-noise ratios (CNRs), apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs), and geometric distortion rates (GDRs).

Main Results:

• TGSE-PROPELLER-DWI demonstrated superior subjective image quality and significantly lower geometric distortion rates (GDRs) compared to rs-EPI (p < 0.001).
• Apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) were significantly higher with TGSE-PROPELLER-DWI (p < 0.001).
• Both methods differentiated malignant (lower ADC) from benign (higher ADC) tumors, with comparable areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) for differentiating tumor types (0.860 vs. 0.854).

Conclusions:

• TGSE-PROPELLER-DWI significantly improves image quality for orbital tumors by minimizing geometric distortion and susceptibility artifacts.
• The diagnostic performance of TGSE-PROPELLER-DWI is comparable to rs-EPI in differentiating malignant from benign orbital tumors.
• TGSE-PROPELLER-DWI is a valuable alternative DWI technique for evaluating orbital lesions.