Diffusion-weighted MRI in abdominal oncology: clinical applications

Abstract

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.

Figure 1

MRI of a patient with gallbladder carcinoma. A: Axial T2-weighted MRI of a patient with gallbladder carcinoma shows a mass (arrow) protruding into the gallbladder lumen; B: Corresponding axial DW image shows high intensity (arrow); C: Corresponding color fusion image of T2-weighted image and DW image shows gallbladder carcinoma (arrow). On color fusion images, the red area corresponds to high signal intensity on DW images and blue correspond to low intensity; D: Corresponding ADC map shows low intensity (arrow).