Preoperative evaluation of myometrial invasion in endometrial carcinoma: Diagnostic performance of 3T MRI

Purpose: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of 3T MRI in preoperative staging of myometrial invasion. Methods: Twenty-eight women with histological diagnosis of endometrial carcinoma were included in this prospective study. After T2-W SS-TSE and DWI, dynamic series of T1-W THRIVE images were obtained (0-180 s) followed by a T1-W THRIVE sequence in the late phase (5th min). For detection of deep myometrial infiltration: sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and accuracy were calculated on T2-W, postcontrast early arterial and late phase T1-W, and DWI. For the quantitative analysis of DWI, ADC values of the tumor were calculated and correlated with histologic grade. For the quantitative evaluation of dynamic series, SI-time curves were obtained and the maximum relative enhancement, wash-in rate, time-to-peak, and wash-out rate of masses and myometrium were compared. Results: T2-W and early phase contrast-enhanced sequences obtained sensitivity 100 %, specificity 76 %, PPV 58 %, NPV 100 %, and accuracy 82 %; late-phase contrast-enhanced images obtained sensitivity 100 %, specificity 81 %, PPV 64 %, NPV 100 %, and accuracy 86 %; DWI obtained lower accuracy [sensitivity 71 %, specificity 62 %, PPV 38 %, NPV 87 %, and accuary 57 %] than T2-W and postcontrast images. The MRE of carcinomas were significantly lower than those of the myometrium. This analysis showed a significant improvement in tumor versus myometrium contrast during the late phase. On DWI, the mean ADC value of tumor was 1.02 ± 0.48 × 10^-3. There was no statistically significant correlation between tumor grades and ADCs. Conclusions: As the 3T MRI scanner allows high-resolution images, accurate assessment of myometrial infiltration can be done especially with postcontrast late phase images. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.