¹⁸F-FDG PET metabolic parameters and MRI perfusion and diffusion parameters in hepatocellular carcinoma: a preliminary study.
OBJECTIVE
Glucose metabolism, perfusion, and water diffusion may have a relationship or affect each other in the same tumor. The understanding of their relationship could expand the knowledge of tumor characteristics and contribute to the field of oncologic imaging. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationships between metabolism, vasculature and cellularity of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), using multimodality imaging such as ¹⁸F-FDG positron emission tomography (PET), dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE)-MRI, and diffusion weighted imaging(DWI).


METHODS
Twenty-one patients with advanced HCC underwent ¹⁸F-FDG PET, DCE-MRI, and DWI before treatment. Maximum standard uptake values (SUV(max)) from ¹⁸F-FDG-PET, variables of the volume transfer constant (K(trans)) from DCE-MRI and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) from DWI were obtained for the tumor and their relationships were examined by Spearman's correlation analysis. The influence of portal vein thrombosis on SUV(max) and variables of K(trans) and ADC was evaluated by Mann-Whitney test.


RESULTS
SUV(max) showed significant negative correlation with K(trans)(max) (ρ = -0.622, p = 0.002). However, variables of ADC showed no relationship with variables of K(trans) or SUV(max) (p>0.05). Whether portal vein thrombosis was present or not did not influence the SUV max and variables of ADC and K(trans) (p>0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, SUV was shown to be correlated with K(trans) in advanced HCCs; the higher the glucose metabolism a tumor had, the lower the perfusion it had, which might help in guiding target therapy.
Department of Radiology, Yonsei Liver Cancer Special Clinic, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Sung Jun
SJ
Ahn
Mi-Suk
MS
Park
Kyung Ah
KA
Kim
Jun Yong
JY
Park
Inseong
I
Kim
Won Joon
WJ
Kang
Seung-Koo
SK
Lee
Myeong-Jin
MJ
Kim
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000098:blood supply / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055420:Perfusion Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies
D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18