Variabilities in apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements of the spleen and the paraspinal muscle: A single center large cohort study

Purpose: Evaluation of the variabilities in apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements of the spleen (ADCspleen) and the paraspinal muscles (ADCmuscle) to identify the reference organ for normalizing the ADC from the abdominal diffusion weighted imaging (DWI). Methods: Two MRI scanners, with 314 abdominal exams on the GE and 929 on the Siemens system, were used for MRI examinations including DWI (b-values, 50 and 800 s/mm2). For a subset of 73 exams on the Siemens system a second exam was conducted. Four regions of interest (ROIs) in each exam were placed to measure the ADCspleen and the bilateral ADCmuscle. ADC variability between patients (on each scanner separately), ADC variability due to ROI placement between the two ROIs in each organ, and variability in the subset between the first and second exams were assessed. Results: The ADCspleen was more scattered and variable than the ADCmuscle in the comparability (n = 929 and 314 for two MRI scanners, respectively) and repeatability (n = 73) datasets. The BlandAltmann bias and limits of agreement (LoAs) for the ADCspleen (ICC, 0.47; CV, 0.070) and ADCmuscle (ICC, 0.67; CV, 0.023) in the repeatability datasets (n = 73) were -0.1 (- 25.7%-25.6%) and -0.3 (- 8.8%-8.1%), respectively. For the Siemens system, the Bland-Altmann bias and LoAs for the ADCspleen (ICC, 0.72; CV, 0.061) and ADCmuscle (ICC, 0.53; CV, 0.030) in the comparability datasets (n = 929) were 2.1 (- 20.0%-24.2%) and 0.7 (- 10.0%-11.4%), respectively. Similar findings have been found in the GE system (n = 314). The CVs for the ADCmuscle measurements were lower than those of the ADCspleen both in the repeatability and the comparability analyses (all p < 0.001). Conclusion: Paraspinal muscles demonstrate better reference characteristics than the spleen in estimating ADC variability of abdominal DWI.

Automated summary

This study aims to identify the reference organ for normalizing the ADC from abdominal DWI by evaluating the variabilities in ADC measurements of the spleen and paraspinal muscles. The results indicate that paraspinal muscles have lower variability in ADC measurements compared to the spleen, making them a better reference for estimating ADC variability in abdominal DWI.