Differentiation between nasopharyngeal carcinoma and lymphoma at the primary site using whole-tumor histogram analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient maps.
INTRODUCTION
To determine the value of whole-tumor histogram analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps in differentiating nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) from lymphoma (NPL) at the primary site METHOD AND MATERIALS: One hundred forty-seven patients with nasopharyngeal tumors (89 NPCs and 38 NPLs) who had undergone magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion-weighted imaging were retrospectively analyzed. ADC histogram-derived parameters were compared between the NPC and NPL groups by using the Mann-Whitney U test. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of the histogram parameters were plotted for diagnostic accuracy. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated for each histogram parameter.


RESULTS
In whole-tumor histogram analysis, the mean, median, and 10th and 25th percentiles of ADC were all significantly higher in NPC than NPL (P = 0.045, P = 0.035, P = 0.005, and P = 0.016, respectively). Uniformity was significantly higher in NPC than NPL (P = 0.001). Skewness was significantly lower in NPC than NPL (P = 0.039). For the conventional ROI-based method, ADCmean values were significantly higher in NPC than in NPL (P = 0.009). The ROC curve analysis showed that uniformity yielded the largest area under the curve (AUC = 0.768) for differentiating NPC from NPL among all ADC metrics, followed by 10th percentiles of ADC (AUC = 0.725); sensitivity and specificity were 76.5% and 71.4%, respectively.


CONCLUSION
Whole-tumor histogram analysis of ADC maps could be helpful for differentiating NPC from NPL.
['Lian|Shanshan|S|', 'Zhang|Cheng|C|', 'Chi|Jun|J|', 'Huang|Yingyi|Y|', 'Shi|Feng|F|', 'Xie|Chuanmiao|C|']
D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D000369:Aged, 80 and over D003937:Diagnosis, Differential D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008223:Lymphoma D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D000077274:Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms D012189:Retrospective Studies D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma Lymphoma Histogram analysis MRI DWI