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Interobserver and intraobserver variability of the apparent diffusion coefficient in treated malignant hepatic lesions on a 3.0T machine: Measurements in the whole lesion versus in the area with the most restricted diffusion
Author(s) -
Lu TriLinh C.,
Meuli Reto A.,
MarquesVidal Pedro M.,
Bize Pierre,
Denys Alban,
Schmidt Sabine
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.22301
Subject(s) - effective diffusion coefficient , medicine , wilcoxon signed rank test , nuclear medicine , lesion , rank correlation , spearman's rank correlation coefficient , diffusion mri , radiology , magnetic resonance imaging , pathology , mann–whitney u test , mathematics , statistics
Purpose: To assess the inter/intraobserver variability of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements in treated hepatic lesions and to compare ADC measurements in the whole lesion and in the area with the most restricted diffusion (MRDA). Materials and Methods: Twenty‐five patients with treated malignant liver lesions were examined on a 3.0T machine. After agreeing on the best ADC image, two readers independently measured the ADC values in the whole lesion and in the MRDA. These measurements were repeated 1 month later. The Bland–Altman method, Spearman correlation coefficients, and the Wilcoxon signed‐rank test were used to evaluate the measurements. Results: Interobserver variability for ADC measurements in the whole lesion and in the MRDA was 0.17 × 10 −3 mm 2 /s [−0.17, +0.17] and 0.43 × 10 −3 mm 2 /s [−0.45, +0.41], respectively. Intraobserver limits of agreement could be as low as [−0.10, +0.12] 10 −3 mm 2 /s and [−0.20, +0.33] 10 −3 mm 2 /s for measurements in the whole lesion and in the MRDA, respectively. Conclusion: A limited variability in ADC measurements does exist, and it should be considered when interpreting ADC values of hepatic malignancies. This is especially true for the measurements of the minimal ADC. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2010;32:647–653. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.