Feasibility of whole body diffusion weighted imaging in detecting bone metastasis on 3.0T MR scanner.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the feasibility of whole body diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) in bone metastasis detection using bone scintigraphy as comparison.


METHODS
Forty-five patients with malignancy history were enrolled in our study. All the patients received the whole body DWI and bone scintigraphy scan within 1 week. The magnetic resonance (MR) examination was performed on 3.0T MR scanner using embedded body coil. The images were reviewed separately by two radiologists and two nuclear medicine physicians, who were blinded to the results of the other imaging modality. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of the two techniques for detecting bone metastasis were analyzed.


RESULTS
A total of 181 metastatic lesions in 77 regions of 34 patients were detected by whole body DWI, and 167 metastatic lesions in 76 regions of 31 patients were identified by bone scintigraphy. The patient-based sensitivity and PPV of whole body DWI and bone scintigraphy were similar (89.5% vs. 81.6%, 97.1% vs. 91.2%), whereas, the patient-based specificity and NPV of whole body DWI were obviously higher than those of bone scintigraphy (85.7% vs. 57.1%, 60.0% vs. 36.4%). Ten regions negative in scintigraphy but positive in whole body DWI, mainly located in spine, pelvis, and femur; nine regions only detected by scintigraphy, mainly located in skull, sternum, clavicle, and scapula. The region-based sensitivity and specificity of whole body DWI were slightly higher than those of bone scintigraphy (89.5% vs. 88.4%, 95.6% vs. 87.6%).


CONCLUSIONS
Whole body DWI reveals excellent concordance with bone scintigraphy regarding detection of bone metastasis, and the two techniques are complementary for each other.
Xu
Xian
X
Department of Radiology, Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing.
Ma
Lin
L
Zhang
Jin-Shan
JS
Cai
You-Quan
YQ
Xu
Bai-Xuan
BX
Chen
Liu-Quan
LQ
Sun
Fei
F
Guo
Xing-Gao
XG
D000368:Aged; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D051598:Whole Body Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods