Assessment of microvessel perfusion of pituitary adenomas: a feasibility study using turbo spin-echo-based intravoxel incoherent motion imaging

To evaluate the feasibility of assessment of microvessel perfusion of pituitary adenomas with intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) imaging using single-shot turbo spin-echo-based diffusion-weighted imaging (SS-TSE-DWI). We examined 51 consecutive patients with pituitary adenomas (35 non-functioning and 16 functioning) and 32 patients with normal pituitary glands using SS-TSE-DWI IVIM. The diffusion coefficient (D), the perfusion fraction (f), and the pseudo-diffusion coefficient (D*) were calculated pixel-by-pixel for each adenoma and normal pituitary gland. We also obtained the pathological microvessel area (MVA) of each adenoma. The IVIM parameters in adenomas were compared with those in normal pituitary glands using the Mann–Whitney U test. The correlation between the MVA and IVIM f of adenomas was analyzed using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. The mean D (× 10−3 mm2/s) in adenomas was 0.723 ± 0.253, which was significantly lower than that in normal pituitary glands (0.862 ± 0.128; p