Robust extraction of biological information from diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging during radiotherapy using semi-automatic delineation
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Background and purpose: Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance imaging (DWI) quantifies water mobility through the Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC), a promising radiotherapy response biomarker. ADC measurements depend on manual delineation of a region of interest, a time-consuming and observer-dependent process. Here, the aim was to introduce and test the performance of a new, semi-automatic delineation tool (SADT) for ADC calculation within the viable region of the tumour. Materials and methods: Thirty patients with rectal cancer were scanned with DWI before radiotherapy (RT) (baseline) and two weeks into RT (week 2). The SADT was based on intensities in b=1100 s mm−2 DWI and derived ADC maps. ADC values measured using the SADT and manual delineations were compared using Bland-Altman- and correlation analyses. Delineations were repeated to assess intra-observer variation, and repeatability was estimated using repeated DWI scans. Results: ADC measured using the SADT and manual delineation showed strong and moderate correlation at baseline and week 2, respectively, with the SADT measuring systematically smaller values. Intra-observer ADC variation was slightly smaller for the SADT compared to manual delineation both at baseline, [−0.00; 0.03] vs. [−0.02; 0.04] 10−3 mm2 s−1, and week 2, [−0.01; 0.00] vs. [−0.04; 0.07] 10−3 mm2 s−1 (68.3% limits of agreement). The ADC change between baseline and week 2 was larger than the ADC uncertainty (±0.04 · 10−3 mm2 s−1) in all cases except one. Conclusion: The presented SADT showed performance comparable to manual expert delineation, and with sufficient consistency to allow extraction of potential biological information from the viable tumour.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Physics and Imaging in Radiation Oncology |
Volume | 21 |
Pages (from-to) | 146-152 |
Number of pages | 7 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
- Apparent diffusion coefficient, Automatic delineation, Diffusion-weighted MRI, Imaging biomarker, MRI guided radiotherapy
Research areas
ID: 346410516