Application of DKI and IVIM imaging in evaluating histologic grades and clinical stages of clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Purpose To evaluate the value of quantitative parameters derived from diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) and intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) in differentiating histologic grades and clinical stages of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Materials and methods A total of 65 patients who were surgically and pathologically diagnosed as ccRCC were recruited in this study. In addition to routine renal magnetic resonance imaging examination, all patients underwent preoperative IVIM and DKI. The corresponding diffusion coefficient (D), pseudo-diffusion coefficient (D*), perfusion fraction (f), mean diffusivity (MD), kurtosis anisotropy (KA), and mean kurtosis (MK) values were obtained. Independent-samples t-test or Mann–Whitney U test was used for comparing the differences in IVIM and DKI parameters among different histologic grades and clinical stages. The diagnostic efficacy of IVIM and DKI parameters was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Spearman’s correlation analysis was used to separately analyze the correlation of each parameter with histologic grades and stages of ccRCC. Results The D and MD values were significantly higher in low-grade ccRCC than high-grade ccRCC (all p < 0.001) and in low-stage than high-stage ccRCC (all p < 0.05), and the f value of high-stage ccRCC was lower than that of low-stage ccRCC ( p = 0.007). The KA and MK values were significantly higher in low-grade than high-grade ccRCC ( p = 0.000 and 0.000, respectively) and in low-stage than high-stage ccRCC ( p = 0.000 and 0.000, respectively). The area under the curve (AUC) values of D, D*, f, MD, KA, MK, DKI, and IVIM+DKI values were 0.825, 0.598, 0.626, 0.792, 0.750, 0.754, 0.803, and 0.857, respectively, in grading ccRCC and 0.837, 0.719, 0.710, 0.787, 0.796, 0.784, 0.864, 0.823, and 0.916, respectively, in staging ccRCC. The AUC of IVIM was 0.913 in staging ccRCC. The D, D*, and MD values were negatively correlated with the histologic grades and clinical stages (all p < 0.05), and the KA and MK values showed a positive correlation with histologic grades and clinical stages (all p < 0.05). The f value was also negatively correlated with the ccRCC clinical stage ( p = 0.008). Conclusion Both the IVIM and DKI values can be used preoperatively to predict the degree of histologic grades and stages in ccRCC, and the D and MD values have better diagnostic performance in the grading and staging. Also, further slightly enhanced diagnostic efficacy was observed in the model with combined IVIM and DKI parameters.