Whole-body PET/MRI to detect bone metastases: comparison of the diagnostic performance of the sequences

Background: Whole-body positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (WB-PET/MRI) is increasingly used in the initial evaluation of oncology patients. The purpose of this study was to compare the diagnostic performance of WB MRI sequences, attenuation-corrected raw data positron-emission tomography (AC PET), and PET/MRI fused images to detect bone metastases.

Patients and methods: We included 765 consecutive oncologic patients who received WB-PET/MRI from between January 2017 and September 2023. The presence of bone metastases was assessed using the individual sequences by two radiologists. Interobserver agreement was calculated. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to assess the performance of each individual sequence and fused images.

Results: Interobserver agreement for the detection of bone metastases on all sequences ranged from good to very good. The reading of the combination of MRI sequences with PET images showed statistically significantly better performance than the reading of individual MRI sequences and PET component only. Contrast enhanced T1 W Volume-interpolated breath-hold examination (CE T1W VIBE) sequence superior to PET for the detection of bone metastasis, but the statistical significance was not as high as with T1W-PET and CE T1W-PET fused images. The highest performance was achieved by the fused CE T1W-PET images with sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 92%, PPV of 96%, and NPV of 100%.

Conclusions: The combination of these CE T1W VIBE sequences with PET images have the highest diagnostic performance in detecting bone metastases in oncologic patients. This sequence should be integrated in WB-PET/MRI acquisitions for initial staging of cancer.