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Abstract Conventional magnetic resonance(MR) imaging has been widely accepted as a powerful imaging modality for the female because of its superior soft-tissue contrast compared with that of computed tomography (CT). In the female pelvis, MR imaging is mainly used for staging of uterine cancers and as a problem solving modality in patients with ultrasonographically (US) indeterminate masses DWI allows the detection of focal solid and cystic lesions in the abdomen and pelvis and is most effectively used in conjunction with other imaging sequences. Beside tumor detection ,DWI has the ability of tumor characterization, distinguishing tumor tissue from non tumor tissue, and monitoring and predicting treatment response to chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Diffusion-weighted (DW) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has a large number of potential clinical applications in the female pelvis and can easily be added to any routine MR protocol. In the female pelvis, DW imaging allows improvement of staging in endometrial and cervical cancer, especially in locally advanced disease and in patients in whom contrast medium administration should be avoided. By performing DWI using different b values, quantitative analysis, namely, the calculation of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) is possible and can be displayed as a parametric map (ADC map). Restricted water diffusion demonstrates high signal intensity on DWI and lower ADC values on ADC map. Our study was conducted on 20 uterine tumours; and presented an individual analysis of the diagnostic performance of DWI as an DWI optional cost effective alternative to post contrast studies during the routine MR examination. DWI had showed 100% sensitivity in its individual performance with specificity 91.7%. |