Predicting perineural invasion using histogram analysis of zoomed EPI diffusion-weighted imaging in rectal cancer

Purpose To investigate the utility of histogram analysis of zoomed EPI diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) for predicting the perineural invasion (PNI) status of rectal cancer (RC). Methods This prospective study evaluated 94 patients diagnosed with histopathologically confirmed RC between July 2020 and July 2021. Patients underwent preoperative rectal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations, including the zoomed EPI DWI sequence. Ten whole-tumor histogram parameters of each patient were derived from zoomed EPI DWI. Reproducibility was evaluated according to the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). The association of the clinico-radiological and histogram features with PNI status was assessed using univariable analysis for trend and multivariable logistic regression analysis with β value calculation. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was conducted to assess the diagnostic performance. Results Forty-two patients exhibited positive PNI. The inter- and intraobserver agreements were excellent for the histogram parameters (all ICCs > 0.80). The maximum ( p = 0.001), energy ( p = 0.021), entropy ( p = 0.021), kurtosis ( p < 0.001), and skewness ( p < 0.001) were significantly higher in the positive PNI group than in the negative PNI group. Multivariable analysis showed that higher MRI T stage [ β = 2.154, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.932–3.688; p = 0.002] and skewness ( β = 0.779, 95% CI 0.255–1.382; p = 0.006) were associated with positive PNI. The model combining skewness and MRI T stage had an area under the ROC curve of 0.811 (95% CI 0.724–0.899) for predicting PNI status. Conclusion Histogram parameters in zoomed EPI DWI can help predict the PNI status in RC. Graphical abstract