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

Abstract

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.