Value of apparent diffusion coefficient in detection primary tumors in patients with brain metastases

ZHOU Maodong; SU Chunqiu; SHI Haibin; HONG Xunning

Abstract：Objective To investigate the value of diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) in detection primary tumors in patients with brain metastases. Methods 105 patients with brain metastases confirmed by clinical and imaging follow-up or histopathology were enrolled,including 53 cases from lung cancer,23 cases from breast cancer and 29 cases from gastrointestinal tumor. The ADC of solid portion of tumors and peri-tumor edema were measured,the clinical a-bility of ADC value was evaluated by analyzing the data of different originate brain metastases in statistically. Results The ADC values of solid portion in brain metastases of lung cancer, breast cancer, gastrointestinal tumors were (0.693 ± 0.120) ×10-3 mm2/s,(0.857 ± 0.088) ×10-3mm2/s,(0.782 ± 0.150) ×10-3mm2/s,withstatisticallydifferencebetweenthethreegroups ( F =15.321,P <0.001);the ADC value of peri-tumor edema were(1.630 ± 0.158) ×10-3mm2/s,(1.590 ± 0.238) ×10-3 mm2/s,(1.601 ± 0.181) ×10-3mm2/s,with no statistically difference( F =0.462,P =0.631). Conclusion The ADC val-ues of the common brain metastases is related to the type of primary tumor. Therefore,ADC values may be used to detect the ori-gin tumor for those patients who could not identify primary tumors,and provide help for clinical treatment.