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.
Yamada
Ichiro
I
Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Oncology, Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan.
Yoshino
Norio
N
Tetsumura
Akemi
A
Okabe
Satoshi
S
Enomoto
Masayuki
M
Sugihara
Kenichi
K
Kumagai
Jiro
J
Shibuya
Hitoshi
H