Texture Analysis of Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging for Predicting Early Recurrence of Hepatocellular Carcinoma After Hepatectomy

The global incidence and mortality of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are high 1. Although radical resection of HCC is the most effective treatment, the postoperative recurrence rate is high. Diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) is based on the non-Gaussian diffusion motion of water molecules, which can quantitatively reflect the characteristics of lesions from the perspective of diffusion and heterogeneity2. Texture analysis provides information about tissue complexity and heterogeneity based on mathematical methods. This study showed that DKI-based entire-tumor texture analysis could assist in prediction of the early recurrence of HCC patients after hepatectomy, which was beneficial to improve the prognosis.