Diagnostic value of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI in the staging of endometrial cancer / 中华放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the relationship between the characteristics of dynamic contrastenhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) and the stages of endometrial cancer.Methods A retrospective analysis of DCE-MRI manifestation in 55 patients with scratch-pathologically confirmed endometrial cancer was performed.All patients were divided into different groups according to differentiation,muscle layer infiltration,cervix involvement and metastasis.The enhanced rate,including the arterial phase relative signal increase ratio (ARSI％),the maximal relative signal increase ratio (MRSI％) and the signal enhancement ratio (SER％),was calculated at different time (i.e.16 s,32 s,48 s,64 s and 300 s),respectively.Time-intensity curves (TIC) of lesions were also obtained and divided into 4 subtypes.Two sample t test was performed to compare the MRSI％ among groups,and the Mann-Whitney U test was performed in ARSI％ and SER％ as well.Results The early phase enhanced rate of normal tissue was 894 ± 355,higher than that of tumor 716 ± 215 (t =-2.911,P ＜ 0.01).The delayed phase enhanced rate of normal tissue was 1111 ± 289,higher than that of tumor 803-± 289 (t =-4.926,P ＜ 0.01).ARSI％ of low differentiation group (n =16,M =1.07％) was higher than that of middle to high differentiation group (n =39,M=0.36％).ARSI％ of deep muscle layer infiltration group (n =19,M =0.76％) was higher than that of no muscle layer infiltration group (n =36,M =0.32％).ARSI％ of cervix involvement group (n =27,M =0.84％) was higher than that of no cervix involvement group (n =28,M =0.25％).SER％ of cervix involvement group (n =27,M =2.90％) was higher than that of no involvement group (n =28,M =1.40％) and SER％ of parauterine involvement and metastasis group (n =7,M =2.03％) was higher than that of uterine involvement group (n =48,M =1.60％).The differences between these groups were statistically significant (Z =-2.038,-2.260,-2.172,-2.695 and-2.621 respectively,P ＜ 0.05).Based on the TIC types,type Ⅰ occurred in 13 tumors (23.6％),type Ⅱ in 22 tumors (40％),type Ⅲ in 9 tumors (16.4％),and type Ⅳ in 11 tumors (20％).Conclusions Based on TIC curves,most of endometrial cancers showed significant enhancement which reflected of their rich blood supply.The parameters of DCE-MRI is helpful in staging of uterus tumors.