Magnetic resonance imaging of bound water in biological systems and its clinical applications.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

A prospective study was performed to investigate the correlations between saturation transfer ratio (STR) and histological parameters of invasive ductal carcinomas in human breast. The histological parameters investigated were the extent of fibrosis in the intracellular matrix, dysplastic changes of nuclei, and mitotic index. Twenty-seven patients with breast carcinoma were examined using an off-resonance saturation pulse in conjunction with conventional field-echo T_1-weighted imaging at frequency offsets of 448 Hz and 1200 Hz from water resonance. The values of STR at frequency offset of 1200 Hz (STR_<1200>) increased from non-scirrhous carcinoma to scirrhous carcinoma. Although STR_<1200> showed correlation with the extent of fibrosis in the intracellular matrix, they did not correlate with the dysplastic changes of nuclei or mitotic index. On the other hand, the values of STR at frequency offset of 448 Hz (STR_<448>) demonstrated close correlation to dysplastic changes of nuclei and mitotic index. STR_<1200> correlates with the structural characteristics and STR_<448> correlates with the nature of malignant cells with regard to nuclear dysplasia and mitotic potential.