RESUMEN
PURPOSE: To compare the diagnostic performance of normalized apparent diffusion coefficients (nADCs) of different references with that of ADCs at differentb factors in differentiating borderline epithelial ovarian tumors (BEOTs) from malignant epithelial ovarian tumors (MEOTs). METHOD: This retrospective study included 53 BEOTs and 148 MEOTs. Conventional magnetic resonance and diffusion-weighted imaging withb factors of 800 and 1000s/mm2 were performed. ADC was measured three times at solid components of tumors, gluteus maximus muscle (GMM), iliopsoas muscle (IM) and urine and then averaged. ADCtumor, nADCs were then obtained. Differences and the diagnostic performance of ADCtumor and nADCs between BEOTs and MEOTs with different b factors were compared. RESULTS: ADCtumor, nADCs regardless of b factors were significantly higher in BEOTs than MEOTs. The diagnostic performance of nADCurine regardless of b factors was significantly larger than that of nADCGMM and nADCIM. There was no significant difference in the diagnostic performance between ADCtumor and nADCurine regardless of b factors. A significantly lower ADCtumor and a larger diagnostic performance for ADCtumor was found with a b factor of 1000s/mm2 than 800â¯s/mm2. There were no significant differences in nADCurine of BEOTs or MEOTs or in the diagnostic performance of nADCurine with b factors between 800 and 1000s/mm2. CONCLUSIONS: ADCtumor and nADCs were both capable of differentiating BEOTs from MEOTs. nADCurine was the best of all nADCs and was superior to ADCtumor because of its stable performance in differentiating BEOTs from MEOTs, regardless of b factors.