Applying Amide Proton Transfer MR Imaging to Hybrid Brain PET/MR: Concordance with Gadolinium Enhancement and Added Value to [18F]FDG PET

• Published in: Molecular imaging and biology Vol. 20; no. 3; pp. 473 - 481
• Main Authors: Sun, Hongzan, Xin, Jun, Zhou, Jinyuan, Lu, Zaiming, Guo, Qiyong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.06.2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Accuracy; Amides - chemistry; Avidity; Brain; Brain tumors; Chelates; Correlation analysis; Diagnostic systems; Female; Fluorine isotopes; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 - chemistry; Gadolinium; Gadolinium - chemistry; Glucose; Humans; Image enhancement; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical imaging; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Neuroimaging; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Positron emission; Positron emission tomography; Protons; Radiology; Research Article; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; Tomography; Tumors; Brain; APT imaging; PET/MR; [; Gd contrast; F]FDG; [18F]FDG
• ISSN: 1536-1632; 1860-2002
• DOI: 10.1007/s11307-017-1136-0

Purpose The purpose of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic concordance and metric correlations of amide proton transfer (APT) imaging with gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and 2-deoxy-2-[ 18 F-]fluoro-D-glucose ([ 18 F]FDG) positron emission tomography (PET), using hybrid brain PET/MRI. Procedures Twenty-one subjects underwent brain gadolinium-enhanced [ 18 F]FDG PET/MRI prospectively. Imaging accuracy was compared between unenhanced MRI, MRI with enhancement, APT-weighted (APTW) images, and PET based on six diagnostic criteria. Among tumors, the McNemar test was further used for concordance assessment between gadolinium-enhanced imaging, APT imaging, and [ 18 F]FDG PET. As well, the relation of metrics between APT imaging and PET was analyzed by the Pearson correlation analysis. Results APT imaging and gadolinium-enhanced MRI showed superior and similar diagnostic accuracy. APTW signal intensity and gadolinium enhancement were concordant in 19 tumors (100 %), while high [ 18 F]FDG avidity was shown in only 12 (63.2 %). For the metrics from APT imaging and PET, there was significant correlation for 13 hypermetabolic tumors ( P  < 0.05) and no correlation for the remaining six [ 18 F]FDG-avid tumors. Conclusions APT imaging can be used to increase diagnostic accuracy with no need to administer gadolinium chelates. APT imaging may provide an added value to [ 18 F]FDG PET in the evaluation of tumor metabolic activity during brain PET/MR studies.