MR Imaging in the Evaluation of (Deep) Infiltrating Endometriosis: The Value of Diffusion-Weighted Imaging

Milou Patricia Helene Busard¹, Velja Mijatovic², Cees van Kuijk, Indra Pieters-van den Bos, Peter Hompes, Jan Hein van Waesberghe

To assess the value of magnetic resonance (MR) diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE), DWI was added to the standard MR imaging protocol. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values were calculated using b-values of 50, 400, 800 and 1200 s/mm2. In 60 lesions, mean ADC values of DIE retrocervical (0.70 x 10-3/mm2 /s), infiltrating the colon (0.79 x 10-3/mm2/s) and bladder (0.76 x 10-3/mm2/s) were consistently low and did not significant differ between pelvic locations (p=0.63). In addition, ADC values show comparable diagnostic performance in differentiating endometrial cysts from other pelvic cysts as evaluation of T2- and T1-weighted images.