Correlation Between Apparent Diffusion Coefficient and the Ki-67 Proliferation Index in Grading Pediatric Glioma

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Oncology
• Pediatric Pathology

Background:

• Pediatric gliomas are a heterogeneous group of brain tumors.
• Accurate grading is crucial for treatment planning and prognosis.
• Non-invasive imaging biomarkers are needed to complement histopathology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the correlation between apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and Ki-67 index with pediatric glioma grades.
• To compare the diagnostic performance of ADC parameters and Ki-67 index in differentiating glioma grades.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of MRI and histopathology for 121 pediatric gliomas.
• Analysis of mean ADC (ADCmean), minimum ADC (ADCmin), ADC ratio, and Ki-67 index.
• Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis for diagnostic performance.

Main Results:

• ADC values negatively correlated with glioma grade; Ki-67 index positively correlated with glioma grade.
• ADCmin demonstrated high accuracy (AUC 0.946) in differentiating low-grade from high-grade gliomas.
• Ki-67 index also showed excellent accuracy (AUC 0.962) for grade differentiation.

Conclusions:

• ADC parameters and Ki-67 index are significantly correlated with histological grade in pediatric gliomas.
• ADCmin is a valuable non-invasive biomarker for differentiating pediatric glioma grades.
• ADCmin performance is comparable to the Ki-67 proliferation index for glioma grading.