Correlations between DKI and DWI with Ki-67 in gastric adenocarcinoma

Diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) has been applied for gastric adenocarcinoma. Correlations between its parameters and Ki-67 are unclear.

To investigate the correlation between DKI and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) parameters with the Ki-67 index in gastric adenocarcinoma.

A total of 54 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma were enrolled in the study and underwent DWI and DKI at 3.0-T MRI before surgery. Based on the settings of the regions of interest, the DWI and DKI parameters (including apparent diffusion coefficient [ADC], diffusion kurtosis [K], and diffusion coefficient [D_K]) of each patient's gastric adenocarcinoma were measured and calculated. The participants were divided into two groups (low Ki-67 group and high Ki-67 groups). The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and independent-sample t-test were used to compare differences in each parameter between two groups. Spearman's correlation coefficient was calculated to determine the correlation between Ki-67 and the parameters. Each parameter was compared using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. All parameters were included in the multivariate logistic regression analysis to explore the relationship between each parameter and high Ki-67 index.

ADC and D_K were negatively relevant with Ki-67 and K was positively relevant with Ki-67 in gastric adenocarcinoma. ADC, D_K, and K had diagnostic efficiency in differentiating the low Ki-67 group from the high Ki-67 group. A higher K value independently predicted a high Ki-67 status.

DWI and DKI reflected the proliferative characteristics of gastric adenocarcinoma. K was the strongest independent factor for predicting high Ki-67 status.