Simultaneous PET/MR reveals significant correlation between the intravoxel incoherent motion parameters and standardized uptake values in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients

Objectives: The aim of this pilot study was to explore whether the intravoxel incoherent motion parameters exhibited any significant correlation with standardized uptake values (SUV) obtained from simultaneous PET/MR in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), which is controversial in previous studies^[1,2,3].

Methods: Twenty-one NPC patients with simultaneous PET/MR were included in this study. The true diffusion coefficient (D), the pseudo‑diffusion coefficient or diffusion within the microcirculation (D*), and the perfusion fraction or the contribution of water moving in the capillaries (f), were calculated. The correlation between D, D* and f values and the SUV were analyzed using Pearson's correlation analysis.

Results: Pearson's correlation analysis found that SUV_mean and D_mean, D*_mean showed significant positive correlation(r=0.313, P=0.046;r=0.356, P=0.022 respectively), SUV_max and f_max showed significant positive correlation(r=0.354, P=0.023), SUV_max and D*_mean also showed significant positive correlation(r=0.349, P=0.025).

Conclusions: The present results suggested that D, D*, and f values were significantly correlated with SUV in simultaneous PET/MR.

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