Pulmonary MRI with ultra-short TE using single- and dual-echo methods: comparison of capability for quantitative differentiation of non- or minimally invasive adenocarcinomas from other lung cancers with that of standard-dose thin-section CT

Objective The purpose of this study was thus to compare capabilities for quantitative differentiation of non- and minimally invasive adenocarcinomas from other of pulmonary MRIs with ultra-short TE (UTE) obtained with single- and dual-echo techniques (UTE-MRI Single and UTE-MRI Dual ) and thin-section CT for stage IA lung cancer patients. Methods Ninety pathologically diagnosed stage IA lung cancer patients who underwent thin-section standard-dose CT, UTE-MRI Single, and UTE-MRI Dual , surgical treatment and pathological examinations were included in this retrospective study. The largest dimension (D long ), solid portion (solid D long ), and consolidation/tumor (C/T) ratio of each nodule were assessed. Two-tailed Student’s t-tests were performed to compare all indexes obtained with each method between non- and minimally invasive adenocarcinomas and other lung cancers. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC)-based positive tests were performed to determine all feasible threshold values for distinguishing non- or minimally invasive adenocarcinoma (MIA) from other lung cancers. Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were then compared by means of McNemar’s test. Results Each index showed significant differences between the two groups ( p