Pituitary macroadenoma: Accuracy of apparent diffusion coefficient magnetic resonance imaging in grading tumor aggressiveness:

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of apparent diffusion coefficient magnetic resonance imaging in grading tumor aggressiveness using histogram apparent diffusion coefficient values.Materials and methodsEighteen patients with surgically proved pituitary macroadenomas were included in this study. Diffusion-weighted imaging with single-shot echo-planar sequence at 3-T with a 32-channel head coil was performed with b values of 0 and 1000 s/mm2. Calculated apparent diffusion coefficient maps were generated, and a 3-D volume of interest was placed on the tumor while superimposing contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance images. All apparent diffusion coefficient values within the volume of interest were used to compute the average apparent diffusion coefficient of the tumor. The apparent diffusion coefficient values were binned to construct the apparent diffusion coefficient histogram. Using the histogram, the mean, percentiles, skewness, and kurtosis of the apparent diffusion coefficient...