Diffusion tensor imaging of metastatic axillary lymph nodes

Authors : İrmak DURUR-SUBASİ, Fatih ALPER, Pınar TUNCEL, Adem KARAMAN, Veysel ESDUR, Elif DEMİRCİ, Baki HEKİMOĞLU

Pages : 6-13

View : 16 | Download : 11

Publication Date : 2020-06-15

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Objective: It was aimed to investigate whether the fractional anisotropy insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(FA); differs for the benign and metastatic axillary lymph nodes insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(LNs);. Material and Methods: 58 women with benign insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(n=33); and metastatic insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(n=25); axillary LNs who underwent diffusion weighted and tensor imaging with a 3T scanner were enrolled. Apparent diffusion coefficient insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(ADC); and FA, cortex thickness, long and short axes were measured retrospectively and compared statistically. Observer reliabilities were also assessed in terms of intra and inter-reviewer variability. Results: Metastatic LNs showed significantly lower ADC and FA values and greater cortex thickness, long and short axes. ROC test showed the area under the curve values of 0.876 for ADC, 0.661 for FA and 0.960 for cortex thickness. Cortex thickness had excellent sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. A cutoff value of 3.5 mm for cortex thickness had 92% sensitivity, 94% specificity, 92% positive predictive value insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(PV);, 93% negative PV, and 93% accuracy. A cutoff value of 0.774x10-3 mm2/s for ADC had 84% sensitivity, 82% specificity, 79% positive PV, 90% negative PV, and 84% accuracy. A cutoff value of 0.423 x10-3 mm2/s for FA had 64% sensitivity, 76% specificity, 67% positive PV, 71% negative PV, and 71% accuracy. High intra- and inter-observer reliabilities were seen. Conclusion: Among the parameters assessed by our study, cortex thickness had superior accuracy. ADC and FA showed a respectable diagnostic performance, especially the first one having a high negative PV and the second one relatively high specificity.
Keywords : Axilla, Apparent Diffusion Coefficient, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Fractional Anisotropy, Lymph Nodes, Magnetic Resonance Imaging