The aim of the study were as below. (1) To investigate the feasibility of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM)-based virtual magnetic resonance elastography (vMRE) to provide quantitative estimates of tissue stiffness in pulmonary neoplasms. (2) To verify the diagnostic performance of shifted apparent diffusion coefficient (sADC) and reconstructed virtual stiffness values in distinguishing neoplasm nature. This study enrolled 59 patients (37 males, 22 females) with one pulmonary neoplasm who underwent computed tomography-guided percutaneous transthoracic needle biopsy (PTNB) with pathological diagnosis (26 adenocarcinoma, 10 squamous cell carcinoma, 3 small cell carcinoma, 4 tuberculosis and 16 non-specific benign; mean age, 60.81 ± 9.80 years). IVIM was performed on a 3 T magnetic resonance imaging scanner before biopsy. sADC and virtual shear stiffness maps reflecting lesion stiffness were reconstructed. sADC and virtual stiffness values of neoplasm were extracted, and the diagnostic performance of vMRE in distinguishing benign and malignant and detailed pathological type were explored. Compared to benign neoplasms, malignant ones had a significantly lower sADC and a higher virtual stiffness value (P < 0.001). Subsequent subtype analyses showed that the sADC values of adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma groups were significantly lower than non-specific benign group (P = 0.013 and 0.001, respectively). Additionally, virtual stiffness values of the adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma subtypes were significantly higher than non-specific benign group (P = 0.008 and 0.001, respectively). However, no significant correlation was found among other subtype groups. Non-invasive vMRE demonstrated diagnostic efficiency in differentiating the nature of pulmonary neoplasm. vMRE is promising as a new method for clinical diagnosis.

中文翻译：

---

基于体素内不相干运动的虚拟磁共振弹性成像对肺肿瘤的诊断效率


本研究的目的如下。 (1) 研究基于体素内不相干运动 (IVIM) 的虚拟磁共振弹性成像 (vMRE) 提供肺肿瘤组织硬度定量估计的可行性。 (2)验证平移表观扩散系数(sADC)和重建虚拟刚度值在区分肿瘤性质方面的诊断性能。本研究纳入了 59 名患有一种肺肿瘤的患者（37 名男性，22 名女性），接受了计算机断层扫描引导下经皮经胸针活检（PTNB），并得到病理诊断（26 例腺癌、10 例鳞状细胞癌、3 例小细胞癌、4 例结核和 16 例）。非特异性良性；平均年龄，60.81 ± 9.80 岁）。活检前在 3T 磁共振成像扫描仪上进行 IVIM。重建了反映病变刚度的 sADC 和虚拟剪切刚度图。提取肿瘤的sADC和虚拟硬度值，探讨vMRE在区分良恶性和详细病理类型方面的诊断性能。与良性肿瘤相比，恶性肿瘤的 sADC 显着较低，虚拟刚度值较高（P < 0.001）。随后的亚型分析显示，腺癌和鳞癌组的sADC值显着低于非特异性良性组（P分别为0.013和0.001）。此外，腺癌和鳞状细胞癌亚型的虚拟硬度值显着高于非特异性良性组（P分别为0.008和0.001）。然而，其他亚型组之间没有发现显着相关性。 无创 vMRE 在区分肺肿瘤性质方面表现出诊断效率。 vMRE有望作为一种新的临床诊断方法。