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Abstract #4034

Diffusion-Weighted MR Imaging for the Diagnosis of Intra-Abdominal or Anal Fistula

Masatoshi Hori1, Aytekin Oto1, Sarah Orrin1, Kenji Suzuki1, Richard L. Baron1

1Department of Radiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA


An intra-abdominal or anal fistula is condition which extends from a diseased intestinal segment to another organ or to the skin. MRI is increasingly thought to be an accurate and non-invasive imaging technique for the diagnosis of intra-abdominal or anal fistula. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the additional use of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) improves detection of the disease. Our results showed that fistulae appear hyperintense on DWI. Confidence scores for lesions with DWI and T2-weighted images combined or those with Gd-enhanced images and T2-weighted images combined were statistically significantly greater than those with T2-weighted images alone.