The Value of Amide Proton Transfer MRI in the Diagnosis of Malignant and Benign Urinary Bladder Lesions: Comparison With Diffusion‐Weighted Imaging

Background Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has certain limitations in distinguishing between malignant and benign urinary bladder (UB) lesions. Amide proton transfer (APT) imaging may provide more diagnostic information than diffusion‐weighted imaging (DWI) to distinguish between malignant and benign UB. Purpose To investigate the potential of APT imaging in the diagnosis of malignant and benign UB lesions and to compare its diagnostic efficacy with that of conventional DWI. Study Type Prospective. Subjects Eighty patients with UB lesions. Field Strength/Sequence A 3.0 T/turbo spin echo (TSE) T1‐weighted and T2‐weighted imaging, single‐shot echo planar DWI, and three‐dimensional TSE APT imaging. Assessment Patients underwent radical cystectomy or transurethral resection of the bladder lesions within 2 weeks after CT urography and MRI examination. APT signal intensity in UB lesions was quantified by the asymmetric magnetization transfer ratio (MTRasym). MTRasym and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values were measured and compared between malignant and benign UB lesions. Statistical Tests Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, Student's t test or Mann–Whitney U test, Spearman rank correlation coefficient, area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC), Delong test, and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The significance threshold was set at P