Correlation of Intravoxel Incoherent Motion Parameters and Histological Characteristics From Infiltrated Marrow in Patients With Acute Leukemia

Background An accurate and noninvasive method is of great importance to assess angiogenesis and cellularity of bone marrow in acute leukemia (AL). Purpose To investigate whether the intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) parameters correlate with the histological characteristics of infiltrated marrow in AL patients and compare the difference between acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Study Type Prospective. Population Model Forty newly diagnosed patients with AL, including 20 AML and 20 ALL. Field Strength/Sequence 1.5T/T1WI and IVIM. Assessment IVIM‐derived parameters (true diffusion coefficient D, pseudodiffusion coefficient D*, and perfusion fraction, f) were measured in lumbar marrow. Histopathological analyses were performed from samples of marrow biopsy. Statistical Tests The correlations between IVIM parameters and histological parameters used the Spearman correlation test. The difference of IVIM parameters and histological parameters between ALL and AML groups used the unpaired t‐test or Mann–Whitney U‐test, as appropriate. Results The f was positively correlated with microvessel density (MVD) in patients with ALL, AML, and AL (r = 0.740, P = 0.006; r = 0.771, P