Colorectal Carcinoma: Local Tumor Staging and Assessment of Lymph Node Metastasis by High-Resolution MR Imaging in Surgical Specimens.
Purpose. To assess the accuracy of high-resolution MR imaging as a means of evaluating mural invasion and lymph node metastasis by colorectal carcinoma in surgical specimens. Materials and Methods. High-resolution T1-weighted and T2-weighted MR images were obtained in 92 surgical specimens containing 96 colorectal carcinomas. Results. T2-weighted MR images clearly depicted the normal colorectal wall as consisting of seven layers. In 90 (94%) of the 96 carcinomas the depth of mural invasion depicted by MR imaging correlated well with the histopathologic stage. Nodal signal intensity on T2-weighted images (93%) and nodal border contour (93%) were more accurate than nodal size (89%) as indicators of lymph node metastasis, and MR imaging provided the highest accuracy (94%-96%) when they were combined. Conclusion. High-resolution MR imaging is a very accurate method for evaluating both mural invasion and lymph node metastasis by colorectal carcinoma in surgical specimens.
Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Oncology, Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan.
Ichiro
I
Yamada
Norio
N
Yoshino
Akemi
A
Tetsumura
Satoshi
S
Okabe
Masayuki
M
Enomoto
Kenichi
K
Sugihara
Jiro
J
Kumagai
Hitoshi
H
Shibuya