Temporal lobe microstructural abnormalities in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma quantitatively evaluated by high-resolution DWI and DKI after concurrent chemoradiotherapy.

To investigate temporal lobe microstructural abnormalities and neurocognitive function impairment after concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). NPC patients who underwent CCRT were enrolled. High-resolution diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion-kurtosis imaging (DKI) MRI, were performed 5 times per patient (once pre-CCRT, 1 week post-CCRT, 3 months post-CCRT, 6 months post-CCRT, and 12 months post-CCRT). Neurocognitive function was evaluated by Montreal Neurocognitive Assessment (MoCA) twice per patient, once pre-CCRT, and once 12-months after CCRT. Of 111 patients, 56 completed the entire protocol. The MRI derived apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), mean of diffusion coefficient (Dmean) and fractional anisotropy (FA) values were significantly decreased ( High-resolution DWI and DKI should be considered as a promising method for the investigation of temporal lobe microstructural change in NPC patients after CCRT.

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© 2019 The Author(s).

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.