Inter-software agreement in abdominal computed diffusion-weighted imaging: apparent diffusion coefficient and image...

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Medical Imaging
• Diffusion-Weighted Imaging

Background:

• Abdominal diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is crucial for diagnosing various conditions.
• Computed DWI (cDWI) generation involves different software, necessitating validation of consistency.
• Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values are key quantitative metrics in DWI.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the agreement in ADC values between two software programs for abdominal cDWI.
• To assess and compare the image quality, including signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), of cDWI generated by these software programs.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 154 patients undergoing abdominal DWI at 3.0T.
• cDWI generated with b-values of 1500 and 2000 s/mm² using scanner console and commercial software.
• ADC, SNR, and CNR measurements in normal tissues; Bland-Altman analysis and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) for agreement and reliability.

Main Results:

• High agreement and reliability for ADC values between software (ICCs 0.991-1.000).
• ADC bias and limits of agreement were minimal.
• Significant differences in SNR and CNR were observed, but deemed clinically insignificant.

Conclusions:

• ADC values derived from abdominal cDWI are highly consistent between the evaluated software programs.
• Image quality metrics (SNR, CNR) show some differences, but these are unlikely to impact clinical interpretation.
• The findings support the interchangeability of ADC values from both software programs for abdominal cDWI analysis.