[Selected clinically established and scientific techniques of diffusion-weighted MRI : In the context of imaging in oncology].

[Selected clinically established and scientific techniques of diffusion-weighted MRI : In the context of imaging in oncology].
Radiologe. 2016 Jan 22;
Authors: Freitag MT, Bickelhaupt S, Ziener C, Meier-Hein K, Radtke JP, Mosebach J, Kuder TA, Schlemmer HP, Laun FB
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that was established in the clinical routine primarily for the detection of brain ischemia. In the past 15 years its clinical use has been extended to oncological radiology, as tumor and metastases can be depicted in DWI due to their hypercellular nature.
PRINCIPLES: The basis of DWI is the Stejskal-Tanner experiment. The diffusion properties of tissue can be visualized after acquisition of at least two diffusion-weighted series using echo planar imaging and a specific sequence of gradient pulses.
CLINICAL APPLICATIONS: The use of DWI in prostate MRI was reported to be one of the first established applications that found its way into internationally recognized clinical guidelines of the European Society of Urological Radiology (ESUR) and the prostate imaging reporting and data system (PI-RADS) scale. Due to recently reported high specificity and negative predictive values of 94 % and 92 %, respectively, its regular use for breast MRI is expected in the near future. Furthermore, DWI can also reliably be used for whole-body imaging in patients with multip...

Source: Der Radiologe - January 22, 2016 Category: Radiology Authors: Freitag MT, Bickelhaupt S, Ziener C, Meier-Hein K, Radtke JP, Mosebach J, Kuder TA, Schlemmer HP, Laun FB Tags: Radiologe Source Type: research