Initial experience of functional imaging of upper urinary tract neoplasm by diffusion‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging
- 5 February 2008
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in International Journal of Urology
- Vol. 15 (2), 140-143
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-2042.2007.01950.x
Abstract
Objectives: Diffusion-weighted (DW) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides functional information widely used in the diagnosis of acute cerebral stroke. We reported our initial experience of this imaging technique of upper urinary tract (UUT) urothelial carcinoma (UC). Methods: Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging was carried out in 10 consecutive patients with suspected UUT UC. With conventional imaging, seven were diagnosed as having renal pelvic tumors and two were highly suspected of having UUT UC. These nine patients were diagnosed histopathologically as having renal pelvic UC by subsequent operation. The last patient was confirmed as experiencing benign stenosis. DW MRI was obtained with a 1.5-T MR imager without a breath-holding sequence. The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of renal parenchyma, dilated collecting system, and tumor were calculated. The differences were analyzed using Wilcoxon t-test. Results: On DW MRI, all nine tumors showed hyperintensity with negligible urinary intensity. Two cases of highly suspected UUT UC with unclear conventional MRI had high signal intensity and contrast. The case of benign stenosis had negative DW MRI. The median (range) ADC value of the tumor (0.803 [0.412–0.958] × 10−3 mm2/s) was significantly lower than those of the dilated collecting system (2.19 [1.42–2.40] × 10−3) and renal parenchyma (1.28 [0.922–1.45] × 10−3, respectively (P < 0.01 and P < 0.01). Conclusions: This is the first report on the application of DW MRI for a series of UUT UC. With this technique, a clear demonstration of UUT UC could be obtained. Moreover, this imaging technique is potentially useful to identify small lesions if they have a low diffusion coefficient.Keywords
This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- Multidetector computed tomography urography (MDCTU) for diagnosing urothelial malignancyClinical Radiology, 2007
- Diffusion-weighted imaging of intramural hematoma in vertebral artery dissectionJournal of the Neurological Sciences, 2007
- 11C-choline positron emission tomography in bladder cancer: Report of four casesInternational Journal of Urology, 2006
- Diffusion-Weighted Imaging of Malignant Breast TumorsJournal of Computer Assisted Tomography, 2005
- Apparent diffusion coefficient measurements with diffusion‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging for evaluation of hepatic fibrosisJournal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 2005
- MDCT Urography of Upper Tract Urothelial NeoplasmsAmerican Journal of Roentgenology, 2005
- 11C-Choline Positron Emission Tomography in Prostate Cancer: Primary Staging and Recurrent Site StagingUrologia Internationalis, 2005
- Differentiation between completely hyalinized uterine leiomyomas and ordinary leiomyomas: Three‐phase dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) vs. diffusion‐weighted MRI with very small b‐factorsJournal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 2004
- Diffusion-weighted MR imaging with a single-shot echoplanar sequence: detection and characterization of focal hepatic lesions.American Journal of Roentgenology, 1998
- Fast magnetic resonance diffusion‐weighted imaging of acute human strokeNeurology, 1992