Differentiating Cytokeratin 19 expression of hepatocellular carcinoma by using multi-b-value diffusion-weighted MR imaging with mono-exponential, stretched exponential, intravoxel incoherent motion, diffusion kurtosis imaging and fractional order calculus models

To evaluate Cytokeratin 19 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with diffusion parameters derived from mono-exponential model (MEM), stretched exponential model (SEM), diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI), intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) imaging, and fractional order calculus (FROC) model and compare their predictive performance.61 patients with pathologically confirmed primary HCC were included in this prospective study. All the DWIs were acquired using a 3.0 T MR scanner with 10b-values (0-2000 s/mmADC, DDC, DADC, DDC, D