Objective:

To compare the clinical value of quantitative parameters derived from intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) and arterial spin labeling (ASL) for staging nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and determine the correlation of these quantitative parameters.

Methods:

Fifty-six consecutive patients with pathological confirmed NPC were performed both ASL and IVIM imaging and were assigned into low- or high-tumor stage groups. The mean

minimum and maximum values of four parameters ［TBF

slow ADC (

D

)、fast ADC (

D

*

)

perfusion fraction (

f

)］ were calculated. The reliability was estimated with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and Bland-Altman plots. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was applied to determine diagnostic performance. Spearman analysis was used to analyze the correlation between ASL and IVIM parameters.

Results:

TBF

mean

and

f

mean

in the low T-stage and clinical-stage groups were significantly higher than those in the high T-stage and clinical-stage groups. For differentiating low from high T-stage NPCs

TBF

mean

showed higher AUC compared with

f

mean

(0.888

vs

0.789

P

=0.022). For differentiating low from high clinical-stage NPCs

TBF

mean

showed higher AUC than

f

mean

(0.838

vs

0.741

P

=0.025). TBF

mean

showed moderate correlation with

f

mean

(

r

=0.632

P

＜0.001).

Conclusion:

Compared with

f

mean

derived from IVIM

TBF

mean

derived from ASL achieved better performance for differentiating low T-stage and clinical-stage from high T-stage and clinical-stage in NPC. These ASL and IVIM perfusion parameters were moderately positively correlated.