Correlation Between Standardized Uptake Value and Apparent Diffusion Coefficient of Neoplastic Lesions Evaluated With Whole-Body Simultaneous Hybrid PET/MRI

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to assess the correlation between standardized uptake value (SUV) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of neoplastic lesions in the use of a simultaneous PET/MRI hybrid system. SUBJECTS AND METHODS. Twenty-four patients with known primary malignancies underwent FDG PET/CT. They then underwent whole-body PET/MRI. Diffusion-weighted imaging was performed with free breathing and a single-shot spin-echo echo-planar imaging sequence with b values of 0, 350, and 750 s/mm2. Regions of interest were manually drawn along the contours of neoplastic lesions larger than 1 cm, which were clearly identified on PET and diffusion-weighted images. Maximum SUV (SUVmax) on PET/MRI and PET/CT images, mean SUV (SUVmean), minimum ADC (ADCmin), and mean ADC (ADCmean) were recorded on PET/MR images for each FDG-avid neoplastic soft-tissue lesion with a maximum of three lesions per patient. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to asses the following relations: SUVmax versus ADCmin ...