Use of Ultrasmall Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Enhanced Susceptibility Weighted Imaging and Mean Vessel Density Imaging to Monitor Antiangiogenic Effects of Sorafenib on Experimental Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Figure 3

Scatterplots show the correlation between intratumoral susceptibility signal intensity (ITSS) scoring, Q, and microvessel density (MVD). (a) Poor correlation is shown between ITSS scoring and MVD in the treated group when all data are pooled (P = 0.261). In the control group, ITSS scoring shows significantly positive correlation with MVD (r = 0.722, P < 0.001). (b) Q demonstrates good positive correlation with MVD in both treated (r = 0.753, P < 0.001) and control group (r = 0.780, P < 0.001). (c) For the treated group, there is no correlation between ITSS scoring and Q when all data are included (P = 0.151). Good positive correlation is observed between ITSS scoring and Q in the control group (r = 0.637, P = 0.003). ((d), (e)) Good positive correlation exists between ITSS scoring and MVD (r = 0.742, P = 0.002) and between ITSS and Q (r = 0.713, P = 0.004) when data from baseline are excluded in the treated group.

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