Identifying the Microvascular Invasion of Hepatocellular Carcinoma with a Continuous Time Random-Walk Diffusion Model

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

DWI is the most widely-used functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique in clinical practice. It has been widely acknowledged that DWI has the potential to probe tissue cellularity, microstructures, and microvasculature at a subvoxel-level. In this study, we aim to access the clinical application of the continuous-time random-walk (CTRW) model which recognizes intravoxel diffusion heterogeneity in both time and space in the preoperative evaluation of microvascular invasion (MVI) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Our results showed that diffusion parameters derived from CTRW model can be used as noninvasive quantitative imaging markers for preoperatively predicting the MVI of HCCs.