Thomas Joseph Re1,2, Mirium Klauss3,
Andreas Lemke4, Frederik B. Laun2, Dirk Simon5,
Riccardo Manfredi1, Roberto Pozzi Mucelli1, Stefan
Delorme2, Bram Stieltjes2
1Radiology, University of Verona,
Verona, Italy; 2Radiology, DKFZ, Heidelberg, BW, Germany; 3Radiology,
University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, BW, Germany; 4MS Computer
Assisted Clinical Medicine, University of Heidelberg; 5Software
Development for Integrated Diagnostics and Therapy, DKFZ, Heidelberg, BW,
Germany
Maps
of IVIM model derived perfusion fraction f (f-maps) of the pancreas show
potential for the identification of pancreatic adenocarcinoma lesions which
appear hypointense in these images. Unfortunately, since bile and pancreatic
ducts also appear as hypointense in f-maps, their presence adjacent to tumors
can lead to tumor delineation errors. A novel approach which automatically
segmented vessels and ducts in the f-maps based on integrated diffusion
coefficient D data was tested in 43 patients and proved to be superior to
both the ADC or f-map for tumor delineation.