Differentiation between HCC and ICC using 3D amide proton transfer weighted imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) are the two most common primary intrahepatic malignant tumors, and the prognosis and treatment methods are significantly different between them. The purpose of this study was to explore the diagnostic ability of APTw and DKI in distinguishing ICC from HCC. When the APTw values were combined with DKI parameters, the AUC was improved from 0.760 to 0.784 and the sensitivity reached 100%. Our preliminary study showed that APTw combined with the mean diffusivity and kurtosis anisotropy values drived from DKI demonstrated a better performance in the differential diagnosis of HCC and ICC.