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. 2022 Jul 18:3:912803.
doi: 10.3389/froh.2022.912803. eCollection 2022.

Evaluation of Proton MR Spectroscopy for the Study of the Tongue Tissue in Healthy Subjects and Patients With Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Preliminary Findings

Salem Boussida  1   2 , Yvener François  3 , Adrien Heintz  1   2 , Zuzana Saidak  2   4 , Stéphanie Dakpé  2   5 , Alexandre Coutte  2   6 , Bruno Chauffert  7 , Bernard Devauchelle  2   5 , Antoine Galmiche  2   4 , Sylvie Testelin  2   5 , Patrick Goudot  3 , Jean-Marc Constans  1   2
Affiliations

Evaluation of Proton MR Spectroscopy for the Study of the Tongue Tissue in Healthy Subjects and Patients With Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Preliminary Findings

Salem Boussida et al. Front Oral Health. .

Abstract

Purpose: To noninvasively assess spectroscopic and metabolic profiles of healthy tongue tissue and in an exploratory objective in nontreated and treated patients with tongue squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).

Methods: Fourteen healthy subjects (HSs), one patient with nontreated tongue SCC (NT-SCC), and two patients with treated tongue SCC (T-SCC) underwent MRI and single-voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) evaluations (3 and 1.5T). Multi-echo-times 1H-MRS was performed at the medial superior part (MSP) and the anterior inferior part (AIP) of the tongue in HS, while 1H-MRS voxel was placed at the most aggressive part of the tumor for patients with tongue SCC. 1H-MRS data analysis yielded spectroscopic metabolite ratios quantified to total creatine.

Results: In HS, compared to MSP and AIP, 1H-MRS spectra revealed higher levels of creatine, a more prominent and well-identified trimethylamine-choline (TMA-Cho) peak. However, larger prominent lipid peaks were better differentiated in the tongue MSP. Compared to HS, patients with NT-SCC exhibited very high levels of lipids and relatively higher values of TMA-Cho peak. Interestingly, patients with T-SCC showed almost nonproliferation activity. However, high lipids levels were measured, although they were relatively lower than lipids levels measured in patients with NT-SCC.

Conclusion: The present study demonstrated the potential use of in-vivo 1H-MRS to noninvasively assess spectroscopic and metabolic profiles of the healthy tongue tissue in a spatial location-dependent manner. Preliminary results revealed differences between HS and patients with tongue NT-SCC as well as tongue T-SCC, which should be confirmed with more patients. 1H-MRS could be included, in the future, in the arsenal of tools for treatment response evaluation and noninvasive monitoring of patients with tongue SCC.

Keywords: 1H-MRS; noninvasive biomarkers; proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy; spectroscopic and metabolic profile; squamous cell carcinoma; tongue tissue.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Representative MR images illustrating 1H-MRS voxel placement at the medial superior and the anterior inferior parts of the tongue in healthy subjects and their corresponding representative MR spectra measured at TE of 35 ms (A) and TE of 144 ms (B).
Figure 2
Figure 2
MR images illustrating 1H-MRS voxel placement in the nontreated tongue SCC (A) and treated tongue SCC (B) and their representative 1H-MRS spectra.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Lipids, choline, and creatine metabolites ratios differences between healthy subjects and patients with nontreated and treated SCC measured at TE = 35 ms (A) and TE = 144 ms (B). Note that Lip-CH2 represents IMCL-CH2 and IMCL-CH2 and Lip-CH3 represents IMCL-CH3 and IMCL-CH3. HS-AI, healthy subjects-anterior inferior part of the tongue; HS-MS, healthy subjects-medial superior part of the tongue; NT-SCC, patient with nontreated SCC; T-SCC, patient with treated SCC.
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