Rebecca E. Thornhill1, Greg O. Cron1,
Ian Cameron1, Adnan Sheikh1, Gina Di Primio1,
Joel Werier1, Mark E. Schweitzer1, Jing Zhang2,
Xiao Guang Cheng2
1The Ottawa Hospital,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; 2Beijing Ji Shui Tan Hospital, Beijing,
China, People's Republic of
Musculoskeletal tumors comprise a diverse group of uncommon neoplasms. Conventional contrast-enhanced MRI techniques are inadequate for distinguishing malignant from benign masses. Quantitative dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE-)MRI techniques followed by tracer kinetic modeling may offer improved diagnostic accuracy, but requires descriptors that can capture the spatial extent (shape) and complexity (texture) of tracer kinetic parameters like Ktrans. We retrospectively evaluated both textural and shape features extracted from Ktrans maps obtained from 86 patients with biopsy confirmed musculoskeletal tumors. This combined analysis achieved a sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 75%, 79%, and 77%, respectively for the discrimination of benign from malignant masses.