Application value of magnetic resonance functional imaging ASL and DWI in staging of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

MO Zhiying; ZHOU Wenjuan; WANG Tianzhao; YANG Weizhen

doi:10.20258/j.cnki.1006-9011.2025.10.009

Abstract：Objective To explore the application value of arterial spin labeling(ASL)and diffusion-weighted imaging(DWI)in the staging of nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC).Methods 75 NPC patients newly diagnosed by pathological exami-nation were selected for T,N and AJCC staging according to UICC/AJCC staging standard.The low staging included T1(n=27),T2(n=9),N0(n=5),N1(n=18)and AJCCⅠ(n=2)and Ⅱ(n=18).The high stages included T3(n=32),T4(n=7s),N2(n=33),N3(n=19),AJCCⅢ(n=31)and Ⅳ(n=24).All patients underwent conventional MRI plain scan plus enhancement,ASL and DWI sequence scanning.The mean,maximum and minimum blood flow(BFmean,BFmax and BFmin)were detected according to ASL images,and the ADCmean,ADCmax and ADCmin were detected according to DWI images.Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between ASL and DWI parameters and T,N and AJCC staging,and ROC curve was used to ana-lyze the diagnostic efficacy of ASL and DWI parameters for T,N and AJCC staging.Results The BFmean and BFmax of NPC pa-tients with high T stage were higher than those with low T stage,and the ADCmean and ADCmin were lower than those with low T stage(P<0.05).The BFmean,BFmin and BFmax of NPC patients with high N stage were higher than those with low N stage,while the ADCmean,ADCmin and ADCmax were lower than those with low N stage(P<0.05).The BFmean,BFmin and BFmax of NPC patients with high AJCC stage were higher than those with low AJCC stage,and the ADCmean and ADCmin were lower than those with low AJCC stage(P<0.05).BFmean and BFmax were positively correlated with T,N and AJCC staging of nasopharyngeal carcinoma,and BFmin was positively correlated with N and AJCC staging.ADCmean,ADCmin were negatively correlated with T,N and AJCC stages,and ADCmax was negatively correlated with N stages.Among ASL parameters,BFmax had the highest correlation with T,N and AJCC stages.Among DWI parameters,ADCmin had the highest correlation with T,N and AJCC stages.The diagnostic efficiency of BFmax for T,N and AJCC staging was 0.743,0784 and 0.787 respectively,and that of ADCmin for T,N and AJCC staging was 0.769,0.714 and 0.706 respectively.There was no statistical difference between BFmax and ADCmin for NPC staging(P>0.05).Conclusion Magnetic resonance functional imaging ASL and DWI are helpful to the staging diagnosis of NPC and have certain clinical application value.