Correlation of Intravoxel Incoherent Motion with Dynamic Contrast Enhanced MRI Derived Parameters in Neck Nodal Metastases

Yonggang Lu¹, Jacobus F. A. Jansen², Hilda E. Stambuk¹, Yousef Tehrani-Mazaheri¹, Nancy Lee¹, Jason A. Koutcher¹, Amita Shukla-Dave¹

In the present study, correlation of quantitative parameters derived from IVIM- and DCE- MRI techniques was performed in neck nodal metastases. The results showed that D* (pseudo-diffusion coefficient) is positively correlated to Ktrans (volume transfer constant), vp( blood plasma volume fraction) and ve (extravascular extracellular space volume fraction) are positively correlated to D* and ADC (apparent diffusion coefficient), respectively. These initial results show the feasibility of characterizing diffusion and perfusion parameters using IVIM- and DCE- MRI in neck nodal metastases. In future, these techniques may be useful in assessing early treatment response in head and neck cancer patients.