Pre- and Posttreatment Glioma: Comparison of Amide Proton Transfer Imaging with MR Spectroscopy for Biomarkers of Tumor Proliferation

To correlate and compare diagnostic performance with amide proton transfer (APT) imaging as a tumor proliferation index with that with magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy in subgroups of patients with pre- and posttreatment glioma. This retrospective study was approved by the institutional review board. In 40 patients with pretreatment glioma and 25 patients with posttreatment glioma, correlation between APT asymmetry and the choline-to-creatine and choline-to-N-acetylaspartate ratios in corresponding voxels of interest was determined, and the 90% histogram cutoff of APT asymmetry values (APT90) for the entire solid portion of gliomas was calculated for diagnostic performance. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), leave-one-out cross validation, and intraclass correlation coefficients were analyzed. The APT asymmetry values showed a moderate correlation (r = 0.49, P < .001) with the choline-to-creatine ratios and a mild correlation with the choline-to-N-acetyl-aspartate ratios (r = 0.32, P = .011) in the corresponding lesions. The APT90 showed comparable diagnostic accuracy for grading of gliomas (AUC, 0.81-0.84 vs 0.86; P = .582-.864) and superior accuracy for differentiation of tumor progression from treatment-related change (AUC, 0.89-0.90 vs 0.60; P = .031-.046) compared with those with MR spectroscopy. The cross-validated area under the curve and accuracy of the APT90 in posttreatment gliomas were 0.89-0.90 and 72%, respectively. The interreader agreement for APT90 was excellent in both pretreatment and posttreatment gliomas (intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.95 and 0.96, respectively). APT imaging used as a tumor proliferation index showed moderate correlation with MR spectroscopic values and is a superior imaging method to MR spectroscopy, particularly for assessment of posttreatment gliomas.