A study of the relationship between gender/age and apparent diffusion coefficient values in spleen of healthy adults using diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging

BACKGROUND Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) systems are very effective in detecting strokes, and they also have shown significant promise in the detection of fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver. However, such systems have the disadvantages of poor reproducibility and noise, which can diminish the accuracy of the apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) provided by the DWI process. The main aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the age and gender of healthy adults in terms of the ADC values of the spleen measured by DWI. METHODS Sixty-nine subjects selected for this study from people who were referred to the Tabesh Medical Imaging Center in Tabriz, Iran, in 2013. Each subject underwent echo-planar DWI for her or his ADC values of the spleen with b-values of 50, 400, and 800 s/mm2, and the resulting ADC values were evaluated. RESULTS No significant differences were observed in ADC values of the spleen among the female and male participants or those from various ages (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS Based on the findings of this study, it was concluded that the effect of age and gender on the spleen's ADC values can be omitted from the spleen-diagnosis procedure. In other words, the spleen's ADC values are not related to the age or the gender of healthy adults.