Abstract:
Objective: To optimize measurement of CT quantitative perfusion parameters for local recurrence and postoperative scar of rectal carcinoma. Method: Ten consecutive rectal carcinoma patients who had undergone Mile's operation were recruited. They were suspected recurrence of cancer because of symptom or review examination. A cine-mode CT perfusion acquisition was performed covering each lesion. The acquisition started 10s after intravenous injection of contrast material (70mL) and lasted 60s. On a perfusion dedicated workstation, regions of interest (ROI) were placed in different ways which contained fixed ROI (24mm
2), hot spot (single voxel), hot zone (24mm
2) and whole mass. Blood flows (BF), blood volume (BV), mean transit time (MTT) and permeability-surface product (PS) were calculated. Perfusion functional maps were obtained. With the cross-section histogram tool of workstation, the mean value of the highest 5%, 10%, 20%, 40% and 60% of BF, BV, MTT and PS were acquired respectively. All the parameters were measured twice separated by two weeks. All patients with 11 masses received CT guided needle biopsy within one week. Long-term follow-up confirmed the character further. All the perfusion parameters by each method were compared by One-Way ANOVA and two times measurements were compared by Paired-Samples
t Test. Results: There were ten patients and 11 lesions(recurrence group:
n=6; scar group:
n=5). Perfusion parameters varied obviously of different ways of measurement. The lowest value was acquired by whole mass measurement, while the highest value was acquired by the highest 5% measurement. BF, BV, MTT and PS of recurrence group were higher compared with scar group (
P<0.05) except the MTT using fixed ROI measurement,MTT and PS using hot spot measurement (
P>0.05). There was no statistical difference of perfusion parameters between the first and second measurements (
P>0.05) except PS using hot zone (
P<0.05). And the whole mass and highest ratio perfusion parameters were more stable (
r ≥ 0.963,
P<0.05). Conclusion: Compared with conventional measurement, the highest ratio perfusion value obtained by the cross-section histogram tool is more useful, objective and stable for differentiation of local recurrence and postoperative scar of rectal carcinoma. The recommendatory ratio was the highest 5%.