A pilot application of APT and DWI in differentiating benign and malignant bone and soft tissue tumors: a prospective study

Motivation: Conventional MRI mainly provides morphological information of tumors that have low specificity in differentiating between benign and malignant bone lesions. Goal(s): Amide proton transfer (APT) is a novel MRI tool to detect amido-protons in free proteins and peptides. There are some studies about APT in tumors, however, lack of qualitative diagnosis bone and soft tissue tumors. Approach: We use APT and DWI to distinguish benign and malignant bone and soft tissue tumors. Results: APT, ADC and EADC were different in benign and malignant tumors. Combined APT and DWI imaging had higher sensitivity and specificity for qualitative diagnosis tumors. Impact: APT and DWI have better qualitative diagnostic value in benign and malignant bone and soft tissue tumors. We preliminarily analyzed APT imageimages of benign and malignant tumors, whether various tumors have different APT values needs to be further studied.