Intensity standardization methods in magnetic resonance imaging of head and neck cancer
Kareem A. Wahid, Renjie He, Brigid A. McDonald, Brian Anderson, Travis C. Salzillo, Samuel L. Mulder, Jarey H. Wang, Christina Setareh Sharafi, Lance McCoy, Mohamed A. Naser, Sara Ahmed, Keith L. Sanders, Abdallah Mohamed, Yao Ding, Jihong Wang, Kate Hutcheson, Stephen Y. Lai, Clifton D. Fuller, Lisanne V. van Dijk
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) poses challenges in quantitative analysis because voxel intensity values lack physical meaning. While intensity standardization methods exist, their effects on head and neck MRI have not been investigated. We developed a workflow based on healthy tissue region of interest (ROI) analysis to determine intensity consistency within a patient cohort. Through this workflow, we systematically evaluated intensity standardization methods for MRI of head and neck cancer (HNC) patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: among methods. RESULTS: compared to unstandardized images were significant in the HET cohort (p < 0.05) but not significant in the HOM cohort (p > 0.05). In both cohorts, differences between methods were often minimal and nonsignificant. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings stress the importance of intensity standardization, either through the utilization of uniform acquisition parameters or specific intensity standardization methods, and the need for testing intensity consistency before performing quantitative analysis of HNC MRI.