Abstract
Abstract
Background
To assess the feasibility of the cine MR feature tracking technique for the evaluation of cardiovascular-induced morphological deformation in the diagnosis of thymic epithelial tumors (TETs).
Methods
Our study population consisted of 43 patients with pathologically proven TETs including 10 low-grade thymomas, 23 high-grade thymomas, and 10 thymic carcinomas. Cine MR images were acquired using a balanced steady-state free precession sequence with short periods of breath-hold in the axial and oblique planes in the slice with the largest lesion cross-sectional area. The tumor margin was manually delineated in the diastolic phase and was automatically tracked for all other cardiac phases. The change rates of the long-to-short diameter ratio (∆LSR) and tumor area (∆area) associated with pulsation were compared between the three pathological groups using the Kruskal–Wallis H test and the Mann–Whitney U test. A receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to assess the ability of each parameter to differentiate thymic carcinomas from thymomas.
Results
∆LSR and ∆area were significantly different among the three groups in the axial plane (p = 0.028 and 0.006, respectively) and in the oblique plane (p = 0.034 and 0.043, respectively). ∆LSR and ∆area values were significantly lower in thymic carcinomas than in thymomas in the axial plane (for both, p = 0.012) and in the oblique plane (p = 0.015 and 0.011, respectively). The area under the ROC curves for ∆LSR and ∆area for the diagnosis of thymic carcinoma ranged from 0.755 to 0.764.
Conclusions
Evaluation of morphological deformation using cine-MR feature tracking analysis can help diagnose histopathological subtypes of TETs and identify thymic carcinomas preoperatively.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging,Oncology,General Medicine,Radiological and Ultrasound Technology