A Correlative Study Between Diffusion-Weighted Imaging And Angiogenesis In Hepatocellular Carcinomas

Objective: To explore the application value of diffusion-weightedimaging （DWI） in hepatocellular carcinoma （HCC） diagnosis.Materials and Methods: Thirty-eight patients with HCCs hadundergone preoperative liver conventional magnetic resonance imaging（MRI）, and the apparent diffusion coefficient （ADC） was obtained. The ADCvalues of tumors and normal liver tissues were measured on DWI images byone radiologist, and their differences were analyzed.Results: All 38 HCCs showed high signal intensity on thediffusion-weighted images. The mean ADC values of the HCCs and normalliver tissues were 1.15±0.51 and 1.61±0.73×10^-3mm²/s, respectively. TheADC values of the HCCs were significantly lower than those of normal livertissues （p = 0.000）.Conclusion: The ADC values of the HCCs and the normal liver tissueswere significantly different, which may be useful in the diagnosis of hepaticlesions. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the correlationbetween the ADC values on diffusion-weighted images and the expression ofvascular endothelial growth factor （VEGF） and microvessel density （MVD） inHCCs.Materials and Methods: MVD and VEGF expression were detected inHCC tissue samples using the Elivison method. HCCs were histologicallyclassified using the Edmondson-Steiner classification system. The correlationbetween the ADC values and VEGF expression and MVD and the histologicaldifferentiation of HCCs was analyzed.Results: The mean ADC values of the HCCs with negative VEGFexpression （-）, weak positive expression （+） and positive expression （++～+++） were 1.17±0.49×10^-3mm²/s, 1.46±0.45×10^-3mm²/s and 0.91±0.47×10^-3mm²/s, respectively. The ADC values differed significantly between thethree groups（F = 5.093, p = 0.003），and the ADC values of HCCs with weakpositive VEGF expression were higher than those in HCCs with positiveVEGF expression. In HCCs, there was a negative correlation between VEGFexpression and the ADC value （r = - 0.321, p = 0.05）, but there was noobvious correlation between MVD and the ADC value （p = 0.345）. The meanADC values of the well-differentiated HCCs, the moderately differentiatedHCCs and the poorly differentiated HCCs were 0.92±0.51×10^-3mm²/s,1.33±0.34×10^-3mm²/s and 1.52±0.46×10^-3mm²/s, respectively. The ADCvalues of the well-differentiated HCCs were lower than those of the moderately differentiated HCCs and the poorly differentiated HCCs. TheHCC pathological grades showed a positively correlated with the ADC values（r = 0.530, p = 0.001）.Conclusion: The HCC ADC values were related to tumor angiogenesis,indicating that diffusion-weighted imaging can be used to evaluate HCCangiogenesis.