Prediction of lymphovascular space invasion in cervical carcinoma using diffusion kurtosis imaging

This study aimed to investigate the potential relationship between diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI)- derived parameters and lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI) in patients with cervical carcinoma. This prospective study included 30 patients with cervical carcinoma. The patients underwent MRI, diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), and DKI prior to surgery. The surgical pathology results were accepted as the reference standard for determining the LVSI status. The DKI-derived parameters, including mean diffusivity (MD) and mean kurtosis (MK), were measured. The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value was also assessed. The MD value of LVSI positive cervical carcinomas was significantly lower than LVSI negative carcinomas (p-value = 0.01). MK value was significantly higher in LVSI positive tumors (p-value = 0.01). However, the ADC value did not show a significant difference between LVSI positive and LVSI negative tumors (p-value = 0.2). MD and MK parameters showed similar diagnostic accuracy in identifying the LVSI status, with the area under the curve of 0.77 and 0.78, respectively. In this study, DKI-derived parameters were associated with the LVSI status in cervical carcinomas. Further studies with larger sample size are required to confirm these results.