Intensity standardization methods in magnetic resonance imaging of head and neck cancer

Physics and Imaging in Radiation Oncology

Lisanne V. van Dijk¹  Sam Mulder²  Brigid A. McDonald²  Sara Ahmed²  Abdallah S.R. Mohamed²  Clifton D. Fuller²  Keith L. Sanders²  Travis Salzillo²  Lance A. McCoy²  Mohamed A. Naser²  Renjie He²  Kareem A. Wahid²  Jarey Wang²  Christina Setareh Sharafi²  Stephen Y. Lai³  Kate Hutcheson³  Brian M. Anderson⁴  Yao Ding⁵  Jihong Wang⁵ 

[1] Corresponding authors at: Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd, Houston, TX 77030, United States.;Departments of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States;Head and Neck Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States;Imaging Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States;Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States;

关键词: MRI;    Standardization;    Harmonization;    Normalization;    Quantitative analysis;    Head and neck cancer;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Background and Purpose: Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) poses challenges in quantitative analysis because voxel intensity values lack physical meaning. While intensity standardization methods exist, their effects on head and neck MRI have not been investigated. We developed a workflow based on healthy tissue region of interest (ROI) analysis to determine intensity consistency within a patient cohort. Through this workflow, we systematically evaluated intensity standardization methods for MRI of head and neck cancer (HNC) patients. Materials and Methods: Two HNC cohorts (30 patients total) were retrospectively analyzed. One cohort was imaged with heterogenous acquisition parameters (HET cohort), whereas the other was imaged with homogenous acquisition parameters (HOM cohort). The standard deviation of cohort-level normalized mean intensity (SD NMIc), a metric of intensity consistency, was calculated across ROIs to determine the effect of five intensity standardization methods on T2-weighted images. For each cohort, a Friedman test followed by a post-hoc Bonferroni-corrected Wilcoxon signed-rank test was conducted to compare SD NMIc among methods. Results: Consistency (SD NMIc across ROIs) between unstandardized images was substantially more impaired in the HET cohort (0.29 ± 0.08) than in the HOM cohort (0.15 ± 0.03). Consequently, corrected p-values for intensity standardization methods with lower SD NMIc compared to unstandardized images were significant in the HET cohort (p < 0.05) but not significant in the HOM cohort (p > 0.05). In both cohorts, differences between methods were often minimal and nonsignificant. Conclusions: Our findings stress the importance of intensity standardization, either through the utilization of uniform acquisition parameters or specific intensity standardization methods, and the need for testing intensity consistency before performing quantitative analysis of HNC MRI.

【 授权许可】

Unknown