Keywords:
Metastases, Metabolic disorders, Cancer, Imaging sequences, Diagnostic procedure, Computer Applications-Detection, diagnosis, Ultrasound, MR, CT, Paediatric, Neuroradiology brain, Abdomen
Authors:
Y. Tachibana1, R. Kishimoto1, T. Omatsu1, S. Kandatsu2, A. Hasegawa1, M. Koto1, R. Takagi1, T. Obata1, H. Tsuji1; 1Chiba/JP, 2Chiba-Ken/JP
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2013/C-0959
Conclusion
SWV may be useful for diagnosing metastatic nodes.
It bears comparison with ADC,
and seems even superior to it.
Histologic homogeneity may be one of the reflected factors in SWV.
Discussion:
The difference in SWV between the control and metastasis groups was significant.
The significance was greater compared to any of the parameters of ADC.
This may suggest that SWV equals,
or may even be superior to ADC in the diagnosis of lymph node metastasis.
In addition,
SWV was not significantly correlated with the average or median of ADC,
the parameters of ADC that demonstrated a significant difference between the control and metastasis groups.
This may suggest that SWV and ADC (average and median) reflect different aspects in resulting in the difference between the control and metastasis groups,
so that it might be recommendable to undergo both modalities to obtain a more accurate diagnosis.
There was significant correlation between SWV and SD of ADC.
Interestingly,
it was not dependent on the existence of metastasis.
If ADC is changed mainly by tissue density (cellularity),
as is often assumed,
the result may suggest that tissue homogeneity is one of the characteristics reflected in SWV (homogeneous tissue has faster SWV).
This study has several limitations.
First,
the number of subjects was small.
Second,
the criterion to exclude patients whose lymph nodes by US and MRI did not match clearly might have caused a bias.
Third,
the control group was not strictly proven as non-metastatic.
Some of the patients were still undergoing therapy for their primary tumors,
which might have concealed malignancy in the lymph nodes that we judged as non-metastatic.