EADC Values in Diagnosis of Renal Lesions by 3.0 T Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Compared with the ADC Values

Exponential apparent diffusion coefficient (EADC) is an indicator of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and reflects the pathological changes of tissues quantitatively. However, no study has been investigated in the space-occupying kidney disease using EADC values. This study aims to evaluate the diagnostic role of EADC values at a high magnetic field strength (3.0 T) in kidney neoplastic lesions, compared with that of the ADC values. Ninety patients with suspected renal tumors (including 101 suspected renal lesions) and 20 healthy volunteers were performed MRI scanning. Diffusion-weighted imaging was performed with a single-shot spin-echo echo-planar imaging (SE-EPI) sequence at a diffusion gradient of b = 500 s/mm². We found renal cell carcinoma (RCC) can be distinguished from angiomyolipoma, and clear cell carcinoma can be distinguished from non-clear cell carcinoma by EADC value. There was significant difference in overall EADC values between renal cell carcinoma (0.150 ± 0.059) and angiomyolipoma (0.270 ± 0.108) when b value was 500 s/mm². When receiver operating characteristic (ROC) was higher than 0.192, the sensitivity and specificity of EADC value of renal cell carcinoma were 84.6 and 81.1 %, respectively. In conclusion, EADC map shows the internal structure of the kidney tumor more intuitively than the ADC map dose, and is also in line with the observation habits of the clinicians. EADC can be used as an effective imaging method for tumor diagnosis.