Highlights
- •T2, T2* relaxometry can be used to support diagnosis for lipomatous neoplasms.
- •The amount of signal loss related to spin coupling phenomena is indicative of lipomatous tumor histological grading.
- •Pre-operative biopsy guidance can be facilitated as areas of good or poor differentiation are identified on a pixel basis.
Abstract
Background
Subcutaneous fat may have variable signal intensity on T2w images depending on the
choice of imaging parameters. However, fatty components within tumors have a different
degree of signal dependence on the acquisition scheme. This study examined the use
of T2, T2* relaxometry and spin coupling related signal changes (Spin Coupling ratio, SCr) on
two different imaging protocols as clinically relevant descriptors of benign and malignant
lipomatous tumors.
Materials and methods
20 patients with benign lipomas or liposarcomas of variable histologic grade were
examined at an 1.5 T scanner with Multi Echo Spin Echo (MESE) different echo spacing
(ESP) in order to produce bright fat T2w images (ESP: 13.4 ms, 25 equidistant echoes)
and dark fat images (ESP: 26.8 ms with 10 equidistant echoes). T2* relaxometry acquisition comprises 4 sets of in-opposed echoes (2.4–19.2 ms, ESP:
2.4 ms) Multi Echo Gradient Echo (MEGRE) sequence. All parametric maps were calculated
on a pixel basis.
Results
Significant differences of SCr were found for five different types of lipomatous tumors
(Pairwise t-test with Bonferroni correction): lipomas, well differentiated liposarcomas, myxoid
liposarcomas, pleomorphic liposarcomas and poorly differentiated liposarcomas. SCr
surpassed the classification performance of T2 and T2* relaxometry.
Data conclusion
A novel biomarker based on spin coupling related signal loss, SCr, is indicative of
lipomatous tumor histological grading. We concluded that T2, T2* and SCr can be used for the classification of fat containing tumors, which may be
important for biopsy guidance in heterogeneous masses and treatment planning.
Graphical abstract
Graphical Abstract
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical PhysicsAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Recent advances in the management of liposarcoma.F1000Res. 2016; 5: 2907
- Spectrum of fat-containing soft-tissue masses at mr imaging: the common, the uncommon, the characteristic, and the sometimes confusing.RadioGraphics. 2016; 36: 753-766https://doi.org/10.1148/rg.2016150133
- Imaging characteristics of deep-seated lipomatous tumors: intramuscular lipoma, intermuscular lipoma, and lipoma-like liposarcoma.J Orthop Sci. 2007; 12: 533-541https://doi.org/10.1007/S00776-007-1177-3
- Non-invasive detection of adulterated olive oil in full bottles using time-domain NMR relaxometry.Artic J Braz Chem Soc. 2017; 28: 385-390https://doi.org/10.5935/0103-5053.20160188
- Dependence of the liquid transverse relaxation time T2 in porous media on fluid flow velocity.Int J Heat Mass Transf. 2016; 101: 692-698https://doi.org/10.1016/J.IJHEATMASSTRANSFER.2016.05.057
- 3D polymer gel MRI dosimetry using a 2D haste, A 2D TSE AND A 2D SE multi echo (ME) T2 relaxometric sequences: Comparison of dosimetric results.Phys Medica. 2016; 32: 238-239https://doi.org/10.1016/J.EJMP.2016.07.498
- MR imaging of fat-containing tissues: valuation of two quantitative imaging techniques in comparison with localized proton spectroscopy.Magn Reson Imaging. 1993; 11: 977-991https://doi.org/10.1016/0730-725X(93)90217-2
- MR properties of brown and white adipose tissues.J Magn Reson Imaging. 2011; 34: 468-473https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.22623
- Myocardial T2* measurements in iron-overloaded thalassemia: An in vivo study to investigate optimal methods of quantification.Magn Reson Med. 2008; 60: 1082-1089https://doi.org/10.1002/mrm.21744
- Why fat is bright in rare and fast spin-echo imaging.J Magn Reson Imaging. 1992; 2: 533-540https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.1880020511
- Effect of J-coupling on lipid composition determination with localized proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy at 9.4 T.J Magn Reson Imaging. 2011; 34: 1388-1396https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.22792
- Density matrix simulations of the effects of j coupling in spin echo and fast spin echo imaging.J Magn Reson. 1999; 140: 305-314https://doi.org/10.1006/JMRE.1998.1655
- Improved sensitivity to overlapping multiplet signals in in vivo proton spectroscopy using a multiecho volume selective (CPRESS) experiment.Magn Reson Med. 1997; 37: 816-820https://doi.org/10.1002/mrm.1910370603
- Analysis of carr—purcell spin-echo nmr experiments on multiple-spin systems. II. The effect of chemical exchange.J Chem Phys. 1966; 45: 902-916https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1727703
- In vivo detection and quantification of scalar coupled1H NMR resonances.Concepts Magn Reson. 2001; 13: 32-76https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-0534(2001) 13:1<32::AID-CMR4>3.0.CO;2-J
- The impact of spin coupling signal loss on fat content characterization in multi-echo acquisitions with different echo spacing.Magn Reson Imaging. 2017; 38https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mri.2016.12.011
- Properties of the PHase-Alternating Phase-Shift (PHAPS) multiple spin-echo protocol in MRI: a study of the effects of imperfect RF pulses.Magn Reson Imaging. 1993; 11: 771-784https://doi.org/10.1016/0730-725X(93)90195-J
- Diffusion Modelling Tool (DMT) for the analysis of Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data.in: Proc. 33rd Comput. Graph. Int. – CGI ’16. ACM Press, New York, New York, USA2016: 97-100https://doi.org/10.1145/2949035.2949060
- Manual of surgical pathology.Saunders/Elsevier. 2010;
- Coupled-spin fast spin-echo MR imaging.J Magn Reson Imaging. 1993; 3: 547-552https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.1880030319
- Correlation of lipid content and composition with liposarcoma histology and grade.Ann Surg Oncol. 1997; 4: 557-563https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02305536
- Factors influencing contrast in fast spin-echo MR imaging.Magn Reson Imaging. 1992; 10: 497-511https://doi.org/10.1016/0730-725X(92)90001-G
Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 28, 2019
Accepted:
March 21,
2019
Received in revised form:
March 19,
2019
Received:
February 15,
2019
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
