Diffusion-weighted MRI in abdominal oncology: clinical applications.
Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) provides image contrast that is different from that obtained by conventional magnetic resonance techniques. Although previously, DWI has been used to evaluate various diseases of the central nervous system, several technical advances have expanded the clinical applications of DWI beyond the central nervous system. As a result, many reports have been published on the use of DWI in abdominal diseases. Particularly, abdominal DWI has now being focused on evaluation of patients with abdominal cancer. DWI can be used for pretreatment tumor detection, characterization including predicting tumor response to therapy, monitoring tumor response during therapy, and follow-up study after treatment to detect possible tumor recurrence.
Department of Radiology, Sendai City Medical Center, Sendai 983-0824, Japan. rsugita@openhp.or.jp
Reiji
R
Sugita
Kei
K
Ito
Naotaka
N
Fujita
Shoki
S
Takahashi
D000008:Abdominal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D006801:Humans; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D016896:Treatment Outcome