A scoring system focusing on the risk of muscle layer invasion by Bladder cancer (BCa) has been released, Vesical Imaging - Radiological and Data System (VI-RADS), with a growing interest in evaluating its diagnostic accuracy. Our goal was to assess the accuracy and reproducibility of the VI-RADS score for assessment of the vesical muscular layer with (multiparametric-mp) and without (biparametric-bp) a dynamic-contrast enhancement (DCE) sequence.
Retrospective study conducted from July 2018 to July 2020. All patients had suspicions of BCa and underwent Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) before any intervention. MRI was interpreted by two radiologists with different levels of experience, and a VI-RADS score assigned in two different sessions (3 months apart) without and with DCE. After exclusions, 44 patients with 50 lesions were enrolled. The standard of reference was transurethral resection in 18 patients (40.9%) and cystectomy in 26 patients (59.1%).
Twenty-five lesions (50%) were muscle-invasive. There was no significant difference between the two groups for gender and presence of a stalk, but mean age of NMIBCa group was significantly higher (p = 0.01). The sizes of lesions were significantly different between groups for both readers at 2.42+/- 1.58 vs. 5.70+/- 2.67 cm for reader 1 (p < 0.0001) and 2.37+/- 1.50 vs. 5.44 +/- 2.90 cm for reader 2 (p = 0.001). The area under the curve (AUC) for muscle invasion with mpVI-RADS, considering all lesions, was 0.885 +/- 0.04 (95% CI-0.79-0.98) for reader 1 and 0.924 +/- 0.04 (0.84-0.99) for reader 2, and for bpVI-RADS was 0.879+/- 0.05 and 0.916 +/- 0.04 (0.85-0.99), respectively, both differences not statistically significant (p = 0.24 and 0.07, respectively). When considering only small lesions (< 3.0 cm), the accuracy for mpVI-RADS was 0.795 +/- 0.11 (0.57-1.0) for reader1, and 0.80 +/- 0.11(0.57-1.0) for reader 2, a non-significant difference (p = 0.56) and for bpVI-RADS was 0.747 +/- 0.12 (0.50-0.99) for reader 1 and 0.80 +/- 0.11(0.57-1.0) for reader 2, a significant difference (p = 0.04). The intraclass correlation coefficient for the final score was 0.81 (0.60-1.0) for mpVI-RADS and 0.85 (0.63-1.0) for bpVI-RADS.
The VI-RADS system was accurate in demonstrating muscle-invasive BCa, for both experienced and less experienced reader, regardless of the use of a DCE sequence. However, when only small lesions were assessed the difference between the two readers was significant only for the biparametric analysis. The reproducibility was similar between multiparametric and biparametric approach.
Cancer imaging : the official publication of the International Cancer Imaging Society. 2022 May 03*** epublish ***
Thaisa Gvozdenovic Medina Bricio, Gabriel Lion Gouvea, Rafael Vasconcelos Barros, Fernando Chahud, Jorge Elias, Rodolfo B Reis, Valdair F Muglia
Department of Imaging, Clinical Oncology and Hematology - Ribeirao Preto School of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo, Av Bandeirantes 3900, Campus Monte Alegre, Ribeirao Preto, São Paulo, 14049-900, Brazil., Department of Pathology - Ribeirao Preto School of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo, Ribeirao Preto , Brazil., Department of Surgery and Anatomy - Urology Division - Ribeirao Preto School of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo, Ribeirao Preto, Brazil., Department of Imaging, Clinical Oncology and Hematology - Ribeirao Preto School of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo, Av Bandeirantes 3900, Campus Monte Alegre, Ribeirao Preto, São Paulo, 14049-900, Brazil. .