A Study Utility of Gadolinium Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Gd-MRI) in the Preoperative Diagnosis of Lymph Node Metastasis of Esophageal Carcinoma

Harufumi Makino

Department of Surgery (II), Chiba University

We evaluated the utilityof gadolinium enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (Gd-MRI) in the diagnosis of lymph node metastasis of esophageal carcinoma. Gd-MRI was performed in 42 patients with esophageal carcinoma. The intensities of 50 lymph nodes in MR imaging were measured. No differences were observed in intensity between metastatic and non-metastatic nodes. However, intensity values did overlap. Thus, the auther devised a new method allowing comparison of metastatic and non-metastatic nodes on Gd-MRI utilizing an enhancement ratio (ER). ER higher than 45% reflected metastatic nodes.

Key words
esophageal cancer, preoperative diagnosis of esophageal cancer, lymph node metastasis of esophageal cancer, gadolinium enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, Gd-DPTA

Reprint requests
Harufumi Makino Department of Surgery (II), Chiba University
1-8-1 Inohana, Chuoh-ku, Chiba, 260 JAPAN

Accepted
May 21, 1997

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