Diagnostic value of chemical shift artifact in distinguishing benign lymphadenopathy.
OBJECTIVE
Today, distinguishing metastatic lymph nodes from secondary benign inflammatory ones via using non-invasive methods is increasingly favorable. In this study, the diagnostic value of chemical shift artifact (CSA) in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was evaluated to distinguish benign lymphadenopathy.


METHODS
A prospective intraindividual internal review board-approved study was carried out on 15 men and 15 women having lymphadenopathic lesions in different locations of the body who underwent contrast-enhanced dynamic MR imaging at 1.5 T. Then, the imaging findings were compared with pathology reports, using the statistics analyses.


RESULTS
Due to the findings of the CSA existence in MRI, a total of 56.7% of the studied lesions (17 of 30) were identified as benign lesions and the rest were malignant, whereas the pathology reports distinguished twelve malignant and eighteen benign cases. Furthermore, the CSA findings comparing the pathology reports indicated that CSA, with confidence of 79.5%, has a significant diagnostic value to differentiate benign lesions from malignant ones.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study demonstrated that CSA in MR imaging has a suitable diagnostic potential nearing readiness for clinical trials. Furthermore, CSA seems to be a feasible tool to differentiate benign lymph nodes from malignant ones; however, further studies including larger numbers of patients are required to confirm our results.
Department of Radiology, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran. farshchian.n@gmail.com
Nazanin
N
Farshchian
Saghar
S
Tamari
Negin
N
Farshchian
Hamid
H
Madani
Mansour
M
Rezaie
Hamid-Reza
HR
Mohammadi-Motlagh
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016477:Artifacts; D001706:Biopsy; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003287:Contrast Media; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008206:Lymphatic Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D003287:Contrast Media