Iodine Concentration in Spectral CT: Assessment of Prognostic Determinants in Patients With Gastric Adenocarcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to use virtual monochromatic spectral CT to investigate the usefulness of iodine concentration (IC) and its correlation with clinicopathologically determined prognostic factors in gastric adenocarcinoma.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: From June 2012 to March 2015, 34 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma underwent arterial and portal venous phase spectral CT. The ICs in the arterial and portal venous phases were calculated and then normalized with the aorta as normalized IC (NIC). The surgical specimen was evaluated with CD34 staining to determine microvessel density (MVD). The correlation between imaging results and clinicopathologic findings was investigated for histologic grading, lymph node metastasis, serosal involvement, distant metastasis, pathologic TNM stage, and MVD.

RESULTS: The mean arterial phase NIC value of tumors was 0.12 ± 0.03, portal venous phase NIC value was 0.39 ± 0.06, and MVD was 26.94 ± 7.87 vessels per high-power field (×400). Both arterial phase and portal venous phase NIC values were significantly higher in poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinomas (p = 0.005) than in moderately differentiated tumors (p = 0.013). There was no significant correlation between NIC and serosal involvement or distant metastasis. There was significant correlation between the NIC and MVD in gastric adenocarcinoma (arterial phase NIC, p = 0.013; portal venous phase NIC, p = 0.001). However, neither the arterial nor the portal venous phase NIC of gastric adenocarcinoma had a significant relation to lymphatic metastasis or pathologic TNM stage. There was a significant difference between the high and low MVD groups with respect to portal venous phase NIC (p = 0.045).

CONCLUSION: NIC can serve as a useful predictor of angiogenesis and degree of differentiation of moderately and poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinomas.