MRI diagnoses prostate cancer accurately

MRI with a 3-T instrument has been used in combination with diffusion-weighted images to predict the occurrence and location of prostate cancer, say Italian scientists. Rocchina Caivano from the Radiology Department of I.R.C.C.S. - C.R.O.B. in Rionero in Vulture, and colleagues, published details of their work in the Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Oncology where they described the use of a surface pelvic phased-array coil rather than an endorectal coil to improve patient comfort and give better quality images.

A total of 46 patients were examined for high levels of prostate-specific antigen and subjected to MRI, followed by a rectal biopsy. The use of a 3-T field improved the functional imaging compared with instruments having 1.5-T or 2-T fields and doubled the signal-to-noise ratio of a 1.5-T instrument.

The positive and negative predictive values of the technique were 73 and 81%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for identifying the cancer location were 92, 89, 87 and 88%, respectively, showing that high-field MRI will be useful for accurate identification of cancerous nodules to be biopsied.