Abstract:
Evaluation of MR-DWI in Preoperative N-staging of Colorectal Carcinoma and Its Comparisonwith Contrast Helical CTYa'ningWANG, Gaofeng SHI, Yu DUCorrespondence to: Gaofeng SHI, E-mail: duyu2528@sina.comDepartment of Radiology, The Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050011, Hebei, ChinaThis work was supported by and National Science and Technology Support Program (No. 2007BAIO5B05) and Key Provincial Medi-cal Research Project of Health Department of Hebei Province (No.20090511)Abstract Objective: To compare the value of CT and MRI in preoperative N-staging of colorectal carcinoma ( CRC ) and tocompare the imaging findings with the pathological findings. Methods: The study involved 53 histopathologically confirmed CRC pa-tients. Plain and contrast scanning were performed by a GE Light Speed Pro 32 spiral CT scanner. All MRI examinations were per-formed by a 1.5 Tesla Siemens Avanto Superconduction MRI unit. Different techniques were proposed for phased-array surface coilMRI in both plain and contrast examinations. All analyses were conducted with SPSS ll.5. Chi-square ( χ2) trend test was used to testthe relationship between the results of MRI and CT. Results: The coincidence rates of CT and MRI and MR-DWI findings with the re-sults of N staging and histopathology were 56.6 %, 58.5 % and 73.6%, respectively. The sensitivity and negative predictive valueranked the highest in the MR-DWI scan: 92.3 % and 88.2%. The values were 75 % and 66.7 % in CT, and 42.6 % and 57.1% in MRI,respectively. χ2test showed that there was a moderate correlation between the results of MR-DWI scanning and histopathology results.The kappa value was 13.927 ( P = 0.001 ). No statistical correlation was found between the diagnostic results of CT and conventionalMRI scan (without DWI) and pathologic examination. The Kappa values were 1.128 (P = 0.288 ) and 1.585 ( P = 0.208 ), respectively.Conclusion: MR-DWI is more accurate than CT and conventional MRI in diagnosis of CRC. MR-DWI can accurately predict the pres-ence of nodal metastasis in CRC patients.Keywords Colorectal carcinoma; N staging of neoplasms; Magnetic resonance; Computed tomography