Preliminary study of IVIM-DWI and DCE-MRI in early diagnosis of esophageal cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the application value of double exponential model diffusion weighted imaging (IVIM-DWI) and dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) in the diagnosis of early esophageal cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 30 cases of patients with early esophageal cancer confirmed by pathology were collected. They were performed MRI plain scan, IVIM-DWI and DCE-MRI scan. The normal esophageal tissue, SlowADC value in tumor focus, FastADC value, F value, Ktrans, Kep and Ve values were measured. The difference between cancer tissue and normal tissue was compared using two independent sample t test. The prediction parameters and diagnostic threshold were compared by drawing receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). RESULTS: The average F, Ktrans and Kep values in esophageal cancer and normal esophageal tissue were: (0.48 ± 0.19), (0.64 ± 0.08); (0.45 ± 0.19)/min, (0.14 ± 0.04)/min and (1.14 ± 0.42)/min, (0.56 ± 0.25)/min respectively. Compared with normal esophageal tissue, esophageal cancer F value decreased, Ktrans value increased, Kep value increased, and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05); There was no difference in SlowADC, FastADC, Ve values of esophageal cancer and those in normal esophageal tissues (p > 0.05). The areas under ROC curve F, Ktrans and Kep values were 0.90, 0.98 and 0.92 respectively. They had the higher diagnostic efficiency. CONCLUSIONS: IVIM-DWI and DCE-MRI can be used as the imaging method to diagnose esophageal malignant tumor, which has the higher diagnostic value.