Authors: Guangyu Tang Yong Liu Wei Li Jiping Yao Baoping Li Peng Li
Publish Date: 2007/09/01
Volume: 36, Issue: 11, Pages: 1035-1041
Abstract
Thirtyfour consecutive patients with vertebral compression fractures underwent sagittal diffusionweighted imaging DWI with different b values The group included 14 patients with 18 benign vertebral fractures due to osteoporosis and/or trauma and 20 patients with 27 malignant vertebral fractures due to malignancy The quality of the images was analyzed qualitatively on a threepoint scale and quantitatively by measurement of the signaltonoise ratio SNR Apparent diffusion coefficient ADC values were also calculatedSmaller b values correlated with better DW image quality We found significant differences in the qualitative points values among the DW images with different b values F = 30218 p 0001 The mean SNR of the images ranged from 2175 ± 364 at a b value of 0 s/mm2 to 531 ± 317 at a b value of 800 s/mm2 The SNR of DWI with a b value of 300 s/mm2 1862 ± 247 was significantly different from that with other b values p 001 The mean combined ADC values of malignant fractures were significantly lower than those of benign ones on DWI with a b value of 300 s/mm2 t = 9097 p 001 Four cases of benign vertebral fractures were misdiagnosed as being malignant when b values of 0 s/mm2 and 100 s/mm2 were used
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