Detection of Pelvic Lymph Nodes: Diffusion Weighted Imaging Increases Lymph Node Detection Rate When Added to Conventional MRI.

Wenche Margrethe Klerkx¹, Willem Mali, Gerard de Kort, Peter Heintz, Taro Takahara, Daisy Sie-Go, Petra Peeters

Heavily diffusion weighted images with fat suppression result in high contrast-to-noise ratios in which lymph nodes (both malignant and benign) are highlighted. In our study this led to an 14% improved the detection rate of pelvic lymph nodes. Lymph nodes detected by DWI in addition to conventional MRI were on average significantly smaller than those detected by conventional MR. We hypothesize that sensitivity of MR imaging in nodal staging could further increase if DWI is able to localise more lymph nodes; and subsequently evaluate these nodes by the apparent diffusion coefficient.