Review
Copyright ©2010 Baishideng. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 21, 2010; 16(7): 832-836
Published online Feb 21, 2010. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v16.i7.832
Diffusion-weighted MRI in abdominal oncology: Clinical applications
Reiji Sugita, Kei Ito, Naotaka Fujita, Shoki Takahashi
Reiji Sugita, Department of Radiology, Sendai City Medical Center, Sendai 983-0824, Japan
Kei Ito, Naotaka Fujita, Department of Gastroenterology, Sendai City Medical Center, Sendai 983-0824, Japan
Shoki Takahashi, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8574, Japan. rsugita@openhp.or.jp
Author contributions: All authors wrote the manuscript.
Correspondence to: Reiji Sugita, MD, Department of Radiology, Sendai City Medical Center, Sendai 983-0824,
Telephone: +81-22-2521111   Fax: +81-22-2529431
Received: September 17, 2009
Revised: November 12, 2009
Accepted: November 19, 2009
Published online: February 21, 2010
Abstract

Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) provides image contrast that is different from that obtained by conventional magnetic resonance techniques. Although previously, DWI has been used to evaluate various diseases of the central nervous system, several technical advances have expanded the clinical applications of DWI beyond the central nervous system. As a result, many reports have been published on the use of DWI in abdominal diseases. Particularly, abdominal DWI has now being focused on evaluation of patients with abdominal cancer. DWI can be used for pretreatment tumor detection, characterization including predicting tumor response to therapy, monitoring tumor response during therapy, and follow-up study after treatment to detect possible tumor recurrence.

Keywords: Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging; Abdominal neoplasms