title: The effectiveness of whole body magnetic resonance imaging (diffusion-weighted imaging and fat saturated T2-weighted imaging) in the evaluation of patients with newly diagnosed malignancies in comparison with positron emission tomography-computed tomography.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effectiveness of WB-MRI for the detection of primary and metastatic lesions in comparison to PET-CT in patients with newly diagnosed malignancies
  
  
  METHODS
  In this prospective study, 36 patients were evaluated between August 2008 and October 2012. The findings of WB-MRI (DWI and fat saturated T2 weighted images) were compared to the findings of PET-CT re- garding the primary lesions and metastasis. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were calculated. To assess the aggreement between PET-CT and WB-MRI, kappa analysis was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values for WB-DWI for the detection of primary and metastatic lesions in comparison to PET-CT were 96%, 89%, 97% and 84%, respectively. These are calculated as 96%, 56%, 90% and 77%, for fat-saturated T2W images. According to kappa analysis, the agreement between PET-CT and WB-DWI was excellent (χ = 0.83), but between PET-CT and fat-saturated T2 weighted images, it was moderate (χ = 0.58).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Providing both morphogical and functional data, WB-MRI with DWI is emerging as a promising alternative imaging tool in the evaluation of cancer patients and may become complementary to PET-CT in several clinical applications.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Oncel
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Oncel
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Karapolat
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sever
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*