Quantitative 3-tesla multiparametric MRI in differentiation between renal cell carcinoma subtypes

Background MRI provides several distinct quantitative parameters that may better differentiate renal cell carcinoma (RCC) subtypes. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), chemical shift signal intensity index (SII), and contrast enhancement in differentiation between different subtypes of renal cell carcinoma. Results There were 63 RCC as regard surgical histopathological analysis: 43 clear cell (ccRCC), 12 papillary (pRCC), and 8 chromophobe (cbRCC). The mean ADC ratio for ccRCC (0.75 ± 0.13) was significantly higher than that of pRCC (0.46 ± 0.12, P < 0.001) and cbRCC (0.41 ± 0.15, P < 0.001). The mean ADC value for ccRCC (1.56 ± 0.27 × 10 −3 mm 2 /s) was significantly higher than that of pRCC (0.96 ± 0.25 × 10 −3 mm 2 /s, P < 0.001) and cbRCC (0.89 ± 0.29 × 10 −3 mm 2 /s, P < 0.001). The mean SII of pRCC (1.49 ± 0.04) was significantly higher than that of ccRCC (0.93 ± 0.01, P < 0.001) and cbRCC (1.01 ± 0.16, P < 0.001). The ccRCC absolute corticomedullary enhancement (196.7 ± 81.6) was significantly greater than that of cbRCC (177.8 ± 77.7, P < 0.001) and pRCC (164.3 ± 84.6, P < 0.001). Conclusion Our study demonstrated that multiparametric MRI is able to afford some quantitative features such as ADC ratio, SII, and absolute corticomedullary enhancement which can be used to accurately distinguish different subtypes of renal cell carcinoma.