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Published in: European Radiology 11/2009

01-11-2009 | Urogenital

Combined use of T2-weighted and diffusion-weighted 3-T MR imaging for differentiating uterine sarcomas from benign leiomyomas

Authors: Tomohiro Namimoto, Yasuyuki Yamashita, Kazuo Awai, Takeshi Nakaura, Yumi Yanaga, Toshinori Hirai, Tetsuo Saito, Hidetaka Katabuchi

Published in: European Radiology | Issue 11/2009

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Abstract

The objective of our study was to compare diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) alone and DWI combined with T2-weighted MRI for the differentiation of uterine sarcomas from benign leiomyomas. T2-weighted imaging and DWI were performed in 103 patients with 103 myometrial tumours, including 8 uterine sarcomas and 95 benign leiomyomas on 3-T MR imaging. The signal intensity (SI) of the tumour on T2-weighted images was quantified as the tumour–myometrium contrast ratio (TCR) by using the following formula: (SItumour − SImyometrium)/SImyometrium. The TCR or apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value alone and then the ADC value combined with T2-weighted imaging were evaluated for differentiation between sarcomas and leiomyomas. The mean ADC value of sarcomas was 0.86 ± 0.11 × 10−3 m2/s, which was significantly lower than that of leiomyomas 1.18 ± 0.24 × 10−3 m2/s; however, there was a substantial overlap. The mean TCR of sarcomas was 0.66 ± 0.71, which was significantly higher than that of the leiomyomas, –0.37 ± 0.34; however, again, there was a considerable overlap. When ADC was less than 1.05 × 10−3 mm2/s and TCR was greater than 0 this condition was considered to confirm a sarcoma; a combination of ADC and TCR achieved a significant improvement without any overlap between sarcomas and leiomyomas (sensitivity 100%, specificity 100%). Our preliminary results indicate that combined DWI and T2-weighted MR imaging is better than DWI alone in the differentiation of uterine sarcomas from benign leiomyomas.
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Metadata
Title
Combined use of T2-weighted and diffusion-weighted 3-T MR imaging for differentiating uterine sarcomas from benign leiomyomas
Authors
Tomohiro Namimoto
Yasuyuki Yamashita
Kazuo Awai
Takeshi Nakaura
Yumi Yanaga
Toshinori Hirai
Tetsuo Saito
Hidetaka Katabuchi
Publication date
01-11-2009
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Published in
European Radiology / Issue 11/2009
Print ISSN: 0938-7994
Electronic ISSN: 1432-1084
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-009-1471-x

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