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Table 4 Results of Spearman’s correlation tests between parotid shrinkage and diffusion parameters during treatment

From: Radiation-induced parotid changes in oropharyngeal cancer patients: the role of early functional imaging and patient−/treatment-related factors

Variable at the 10th fraction

∆Vol10fr(%)

∆Volpost(%)

Spearman’s Rho

p-value

Spearman’s Rho

p-value

ADC

0.121

0.285

0.103

0.383

Dt

0.286

0.011

0.289

0.013

F

−0.057

0.614

−0.232

0.047

D*

−0.114

0.314

0.122

0.299

D* × f

−0.153

0.176

−0.013

0.910

∆ADC

0.228

0.042

0.173

0.141

∆Dt

0.319

0.004

0.372

0.001

f

0.022

0.844

−0.242

0.038

∆D*

−0.117

0.301

0.192

0.101

∆D* × f

−0.119

0.293

0.096

0.416

  1. Statistically significant p-values are bold. Abbreviations: ∆Vol10fr Parotid shrinkage(%) at the 10th fraction, ∆Volpost Parotid shrinkage(%) 8 weeks after RT, ADC Apparent diffusion coefficient, Dt Tissue diffusion coefficient, D* Perfusion-related diffusion coefficient, f(%) Perfusion fraction, D* × f Product of D* by f, ∆ADC ADC variation (%) relative to the pretreatment value (analogously for the other imaging variables)