Utility of apparent diffusion coefficient histogram analysis in differentiating benign and malignant palate lesions

Area of Science:

• Radiology and Medical Imaging
• Oncology
• Pathology

Background:

• Palatal lesions pose diagnostic challenges, requiring accurate differentiation between benign and malignant types.
• Conventional MRI provides anatomical and morphological information but may have limitations in distinguishing lesion aggressiveness.
• Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) histogram analysis offers quantitative insights into tissue microstructural properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of conventional MRI features and ADC histogram analysis in differentiating malignant from benign palatal lesions.
• To compare the diagnostic performance of conventional MRI alone versus combined with ADC histogram parameters.
• To identify optimal ADC histogram parameters for lesion characterization.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of MRI scans from 86 patients with histopathologically confirmed palatal lesions.
• Assessment of conventional MRI characteristics including size, location, enhancement, and bone involvement.
• Extraction and statistical comparison of nine histogram parameters from ADC maps between lesion groups.

Main Results:

• Conventional MRI showed capsule presence and nerve invasion as key differentiating features.
• Significant differences in mean ADC values and specific percentiles (ADC10, ADC50) were observed between malignant and benign lesions.
• ADC50 demonstrated high diagnostic performance (AUC=0.934).

Conclusions:

• Conventional MRI combined with ADC histogram analysis provides accurate differentiation of palatal lesions.
• This combined approach significantly enhances diagnostic sensitivity and specificity compared to conventional MRI alone.
• ADC histogram analysis is a valuable tool for characterizing palatal lesions.