T1ρ dispersion imaging of head and neck tumors: A comparison to spin lock and magnetization transfer techniques

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Abstract
The potential of T1ρ dispersion, spin lock (SL), and magnetization transfer (MT) techniques to differentiate benign and malignant head and neck tumors was evaluated. Twenty‐four patients with pathologically verified head and neck tumors were studied with a .1‐T MR imager. T1ρ dispersion effect was defined as 1 — (intensity with lower locking field amplitude/intensity with higher locking field amplitude). T1ρ dispersion effects were higher for malignant than benign tumors (P = .001). With T1ρ dispersion effect .14 as the threshold, sensitivity for detecting a malignant tumor was 91%, specificity was 77%, and accuracy was 83%. A strong correlation between T1ρ dispersion effects and SL effects and between T1ρ dispersion effects and MT effects in the head and neck tumors was found (r = .87, P < .001 and r = .90, P < .001, respectively). High T1ρ dispersion effects are not specific indicators of malignancy, because chronic infections, some benign tumors, and malignancies may overlap. Low T1ρ dispersion effect values are characteristic of a benign tumor.