title: Dynamic Contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DCE-MRI) and Diffusion Weighted MR Imaging (DWI) for Differentiation between Benign and Malignant Salivary Gland Tumors.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Salivary gland tumors form nearly 3% of head and neck tumors. Due to their large histological variety and vicinity to facial nerves, pre-operative diagnosis and differentiation of benign and malignant parotid tumors are a major challenge for radiologists.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The majority of these tumors are benign; however, sometimes they tend to transform into a malignant form. Functional MRI techniques, namely dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE-) MRI and diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) can indicate the characteristics of tumor tissue.
  
  
  METHODS
  DCE-MRI analysis is based on the parameters of time intensity curve (TIC) before and after contrast agent injection. This method has the potential to identify the angiogenesis of tumors. DWI analysis is performed according to diffusion of water molecules in a tissue for determination of the cellularity of tumors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  According to the literature, these methods cannot be used individually to differentiate benign from malignant salivary gland tumors. An effective approach could be to combine the aforementioned methods to increase the accuracy of discrimination between different tumor types. The main objective of this study is to explore the application of DCE-MRI and DWI for assessment of salivary gland tumor types.
authors.affiliation: Medical Physics Department, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran ; Quantitative MR Imaging and Spectroscopy Group, Research Center for Cellular and Molecular Imaging, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Assili
authors.affiliation: Quantitative MR Imaging and Spectroscopy Group, Research Center for Cellular and Molecular Imaging, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran ; Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering Department, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fathi Kazerooni
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran ; Department of Radiology, Amir Alam Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Aghaghazvini
authors.affiliation: Quantitative MR Imaging and Spectroscopy Group, Research Center for Cellular and Molecular Imaging, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran ; Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering Department, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Saligheh Rad
authors.affiliation: Medical Physics Department, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pirayesh Islamian
keywords: DCE-MRI; DWI; MRI; Salivary Gland Tumors