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Diffusion-weighted imaging in hemorrhagic abdominal and pelvic lesions: restricted diffusion can mimic malignancy

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Abstract

Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is an increasingly utilized sequence in the assessment of abdominal and pelvic lesions. Benign lesions containing hemorrhagic products, with conglomerates of tightly packed blood cells or fibers, can have restricted water diffusion on DWI and apparent diffusion coefficient maps. Such lesions can have restricted diffusion erroneously attributed to malignancy. This review illustrates benign hemorrhagic lesions displaying restricted diffusion, with histopathologic correlation in relevant cases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiological Sciences, University of California, Irvine, 101 The City Dr South, Suite 0115, Orange, CA, 92868, USA

    Chandana Lall

  2. Department of Radiology, Clinical Emergency Hospital, Cluj County, 3-5 Clinicilor, Cluj-Napoca, 400006, Romania

    Vlad Bura

  3. Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Urology, University of California, Irvine, 101 The City Dr. South, Orange, CA, 92868, USA

    Thomas K. Lee

  4. Diagnostic Radiology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holocombe Boulevard, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Priya Bhosale & Silvana C. Faria

  5. Department of Radiology, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 222 Banpodaero, Seocho-gu, Seoul, 06591, Korea

    Joon-Il Choi

  6. Radiology, UCSF School of Medicine, 513 Parnassus Ave, Med Sci, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA

    Zhen Jane Wang

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  1. Chandana Lall
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Correspondence to Vlad Bura.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. For this type of study formal consent is not required.

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Lall, C., Bura, V., Lee, T.K. et al. Diffusion-weighted imaging in hemorrhagic abdominal and pelvic lesions: restricted diffusion can mimic malignancy. Abdom Radiol 43, 1772–1784 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-017-1366-2

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