THE CLASSIFICATION OF BENIGN AND MALIGNANT HUMAN PROSTATE TISSUE BY MULTIVARIATE-ANALYSIS OF H-1 MAGNETIC-RESONANCE SPECTRA

H-1 magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies (360 MHz) were performed o n specimens of benign (n = 66) and malignant (n = 21) human prostate t issue from 50 patients, and the spectral data were subjected to multiv ariate analysis, specifically linear-discriminant analysis, On the bas is of histopathological assessments, an overall classification accurac y of 96.6% was achieved, with a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 95.5% in classifying benign prostatic hyperplasia from prostatic ca ncer, Resonances due to citrate, glutamate, and taurine were among the six spectral subregions identified by our algorithm as having diagnos tic potential. Significantly higher levels of citrate were observed in glandular than in stromal benign prostatic hyperplasia (P < 0.05). Th is method shows excellent promise for the possibility of in vivo asses sment of prostate tissue by magnetic resonance.