Usefullness of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Diagnosis of Invasion to the Adventitia and Lymph Node Metastasis of Esophageal Carcinoma

Hiromi Hamada, Takayoshi Yasuda, Kouichi Kudou, Hidenori Yamaguchi, Yoshio Katsuki, Yasushige Tsuji, Akio Nishimura, Masahiro Shinohara*

Department of Surgery and Radiology*, Nikko Memorial Hospital

In patients with esophageal carcinoma, the usefulness of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in preoperative diagnosis was evaluated by comparing the diagnosis by preoperative MRI and computed tomography (CT). By MRI, the tumors were well depicted in 16 patients with advanced cancer, however, they were not well depicted in 4 patients with superficial carcinoma. Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy rates for MRI and CT in diangosis of cancer invasion and lymph node metastasis were calculated. In diagnosis of cancer invasion, they were 88.9%, 85.7%, and 87.5%, respectively for MRI and 85.7%, 77.8%m and 81.3% respectively, for CT. In diagnosis of lymph node metastasis, they were 80%, 100%, and 90%, respectively for MRI and 63.6%, 88.9%, and 65%, respectively for CT. These data showed that MRI was better than CT. MRI is reported to be effective in depicting fatty tissue around the esophagus, and it provides images of various views with free angles so that it is possibleto determine the three-dimensional relation of the esophagus to other organs. From the results of this study, MRI is considered to be very useful in preoperative diagnosis of esophageal carcinoma.

Key words
esophageal carcinoma, magnetic resonance imaging of esophageal carcinoma, preoperative assesment of esophageal carcinoma

Reprint requests
Hiromi Hamada First Department of Surgery, Hokkaido University, School of Medicine
Kita 15 Nishi 7, Kita-ku Sapporo, 060 JAPAN

Accepted
December 12, 1990

To read the PDF file you will need Abobe Reader installed on your computer.