Purpose: To assess the accuracy, criteria, and clinical significance of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) signal intensity and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) quantification for diagnosing acute appendicitis.
Methods: Fifty-one patients with right lower abdominal pain [uncomplicated appendicitis (n = 25), complicated appendicitis (n = 10), and non-appendicitis (n = 16)] who underwent MR examination were enrolled in this retrospective study. Two radiologists independently measured appendiceal diameter and wall thickness. They assessed whether a wall defect, an abscess, extraluminal air, or an appendicolith was present on axial T2WI; evaluated intensity on DWI using a 5-point scale; and determined the ADC values of the appendix and peri-appendiceal tissue. Statistical analysis was performed to assess imaging findings for the diagnosis of appendicitis and complicated appendicitis. Cut-off values were determined using receiver operating characteristic analysis.
Results: For diagnosing acute appendicitis, the accuracy improved from 78.4% using only T2WI to 86.3% using combined T2WI and DWI for reader 1 and from 82.4 to 86.3% for reader 2. For the appendix, the cut-off ADC values that diagnosed appendicitis were 1.41 × 10-3 and 1.26 × 10-3 mm2/s with accuracies of 78.4% and 76.5%, respectively. For the peri-appendiceal tissue, these values of 1.03 × 10-3 and 0.91 × 10-3 mm2/s differentiated between uncomplicated and complicated appendicitis with an accuracy of 97.1%.
Conclusions: Combined DWI and T2WI provided high accuracy for diagnosing appendicitis. The inflamed appendix had lower ADC value than the normal appendix. The peri-appendiceal tissue presenting low ADC value was a notable finding of complicated appendicitis.
Keywords: Acute appendicitis; Apparent diffusion coefficient; Diffusion-weighted image; Magnetic resonance image.