The efficacy of diffusion weighted imaging and apparent diffusion coefficients mapping for liver metastasis of colonic adenocarcinomas

OBJECTIVES: To establish retrospectively the relation between the histopathologic grade of colorectal liver metastasis and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of hepatic metastases of colorectal adenocarcinomas. METHODS: The diagnoses of liver metastases were confirmed with biopsy, surgery, and follow-up imaging findings. Twenty-six patients with 94 liver metastasis were included in the study. Of 94 masses, 59 were poorly-differentiated adenocarcinoma, 18 were moderately-differentiated adenocarcinoma, and 17 were well-differentiated regarding the diameters, ADC values, and ratio index (RI) values. Kolmogorov-smirnov normality test, Kruskal-wallis analysis of variance, Mann-Whitney U test with Bonferroni correction, Spearman correlation analysis, and receiver operating characteristics curve methods were applied to evaluate the statistical relations. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant difference in terms of ADC values and RI between poorly-differentiated adenocarcinoma and moderately-differentiated adenocarcinoma plus well-differentiated adenocarcinomas. Poorly-differentiated adenocarcinomas have the lowest ADC values and highest RI values among other groups. CONCLUSION: Use of ADC values alone can be executed for the diagnosis of focal hepatic masses and also can aid in the differentiation of benign and malignant hepatic lesions.