Using pre-operative radiomics to predict microvascular invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma based on Gd-EOB-DTPA enhanced MRI.

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to investigate the value of performing gadolinium-ethoxybenzyl-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA) enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) radiomics for preoperative prediction of microvascular invasion (MVI) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) based on multiple sequences. METHODS: We randomly allocated 165 patients with HCC who underwent partial hepatectomy to training and validation sets. Stepwise regression and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator algorithm were used to select significant variables. A clinicoradiological model, radiomics model, and combined model were constructed using multivariate logistic regression. The performance of the models was evaluated, and a nomogram risk-prediction model was built based on the combined model. A concordance index and calibration curve were used to evaluate the discrimination and calibration of the nomogram model. RESULTS: The tumour margin, peritumoural hypointensity, and seven radiomics features were selected to build the combined model. The combined model outperformed the radiomics model and the clinicoradiological model and had the highest sensitivity (90.89%) in the validation set. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve were 0.826, 0.755, and 0.708 for the combined, radiomics, and clinicoradiological models, respectively. The nomogram model based on the combined model exhibited good discrimination (concordance index = 0.79) and calibration. CONCLUSIONS: The combined model based on radiomics features of Gd-EOB-DTPA enhanced MRI, tumour margin, and peritumoural hypointensity was valuable for predicting HCC microvascular invasion. The nomogram based on the combined model can intuitively show the probabilities of MVI.

Three-dimensional proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy and diffusion-weighted imaging in the differentiation of incidental prostate carcinoma from benign prostate hyperplasia.

The present study evaluated three-dimensional proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) features in differentiating incidental prostate carcinoma (IPCa) and benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) in the central gland of the prostate. The clinical and imaging data of 9 patients with IPCa, 118 patients with BPH [including those with glandular hyperplasia (GH), stromal hyperplasia (SH) and mixed hyperplasia (MH)], were retrospectively analyzed. The mean (choline + creatine)/citrate (CC/C) value of 3D MRS, the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value and the minimal ADC value of DWI were compared between carcinoma and non-carcinoma tissues. The mean CC/C values were 1.04±0.28, and 1.09±0.58 in IPCa and BPH, respectively (t=-0.205, P=0.838). No significant difference in CC/C values (χ2=2.595, P=0.458) could be detected between IPCa, GH, SH and MH groups. The ADC values of the central gland only differed between IPCa (1.48±0.18) ×10-3 and GH (1.60±0.16) ×10-3 mm2/sec (P=0.037). The minimal ADC values were similar between IPCa (1.15±0.10) ×10-3 and BPH (1.14±0.11) ×10-3 mm2/sec, no significant differences could be detected between IPCa and GH (P=0.930), IPCa and SH (P=0.192), and IPCa and MH (P=0.544). Although the ADC values of the central gland of the prostate differed between IPCa and GH, the findings of the present study therefore indicate that combining 3D MRS with DWI cannot potentially improve the detection of IPCa.