Preliminary Study Of Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI Reference Region Model In Uterine Leiomyoma

Objectives To investigate the application value of dynamic contrast enhanced MRI(DCE-MRI) in assessing the hemodynamic change of uterine fibroids.Methods Sixty-one patients with 78 uterine fibroids underwent dynamic contrast enhanced MRI examinations, exploring the characteristics of Pharmacokinetics Parameter value between uterine leiomyoma and myometrium with GE Health software Omni Kinetic and Reference region model for MR image post-processing. Also the statistical analys is was carried out in the quantitative parameters of uterine fibroids and the characteristics of the myoma. According to the value of Rktrans, Kep,RR and Kep,TOI, these uterine fibroids were divided into high group and low group, respectively. Uterine fibroids were classified as five types on pretreatment T2-weighted MRI: hypointense, isointense, heterogeneous hyperintense, markedly homogenous hyperintense and slightly homogenous hyperintense. And uterine fibroids were classified as three types on the sites of the lesion: submucousal myoma, intramural myoma and subserous myoma.Results Significant differences were found in the uterine fibroids and the myometrium about Rktrans, Kep,RR and Kep,TOI value. There was statistics significance in the difference of group high Rktrans and low Rktrans, group high Kep,TOI and low Kep,TOI(P<0.05); no significant differences were found in group high Kep,RR and low Kep,RR(P>0.05). The T2 WI signals of the myomas were positively correlated with the Rktrans, Kep,RR and Kep,TOI value of the uterine fibroids(r =0.308, 0.303, 0.318, relatively; all P < 0.05). The volumes of uterine leiomyomas and the locations of the myomas were no correlation with the Pharmacokinetics Parameter value of uterine fibroids. Significant differences were found between the Rktrans values of slightly homogenous hyperintense and the other four groups; the Kep,RR values of slightly homogenous hyperintense and hypointense, isointense; the Kep,TOI values of slightly homogenous hyperintense and other four groups except markedly homogenous hyperintense; the Kep,TOI values of hypointense and markedly homogenous hyperintense(All P<0.05). Finally there was no statistically significant difference was found in the fibroids of different locations with the values RKtrans, Kep, RR or Kep, TOI.Conclusions DCE-MRI with Reference region model can quantitatively analyze the microvessel permeability characteristics and directly reflect the hemodynamic characteristics of uterine fibroids and myometrium revealing the heterogeneity over the uterine leiomyoma in a certain extent.