Non-parametric intravoxel incoherent motion analysis in patients with intracranial lesions: Test-retest reliability and correlation with arterial spin labeling

• Main Authors: Sonja Stieb, Andreas Boss, Moritz C. Wurnig, Pinar S. Özbay, Tobias Weiss, Matthias Guckenberger, Oliver Riesterer, Cristina Rossi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2016-01-01
• Series: NeuroImage: Clinical
• Subjects: Intravoxel incoherent motion; IVIM; Arterial spin labeling; ASL; Test-retest reliability; Glioblastoma multiforme
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213158216300985

Intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) analysis of diffusion imaging data provides biomarkers of true passive water diffusion and perfusion properties. A new IVIM algorithm with variable adjustment of the b-value threshold separating diffusion and perfusion effects was applied for cerebral tissue characterization in healthy volunteers, computation of test-retest reliability, correlation with arterial spin labeling, and assessment of applicability in a small cohort of patients with malignant intracranial masses. The main results of this study are threefold: (i) accounting for regional differences in the separation of the perfusion and the diffusion components improves the reliability of the model parameters; (ii) if differences in the b-value threshold are not accounted for, a significant tissue-dependent systematic bias of the IVIM parameters occurs; (iii) accounting for voxel-wise differences in the b-value threshold improves the correlation with CBF measurements in healthy volunteers and patients. The proposed algorithm provides a robust characterization of regional micro-vascularization and cellularity without a priori assumptions on tissue diffusion properties. The glioblastoma multiforme with its inherently high variability of tumor vascularization and tumor cell density may benefit from a non-invasive clinical characterization of diffusion and perfusion properties.