Diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) is becoming increasingly important in the assessment of malignant tumors. It is generally accepted that DW-MRI enables noninvasive characterization of biologic tissues on the basis of their water diffusion properties; it provides information about the biophysical properties of tissues such as cell organization and density, microstructure, and microcirculation. DW-MRI is widely used in neuroimaging, but its application within the abdomen is hindered by the presence of bulk physiologic motion such as respiration, peristalsis, and blood flow, in which orders of magnitude are greater in amplitude than that of diffusion. It was mentioned that a DW-MRI technique that might provide images with improved signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs); reversal of the contrast of these images resulted in black-and-white images with contrast characteristics closely resembling those of PET. We hypothesized that high-b-value DW-MRI images could be directly used for tumor detection because of the different cellular structures of healthy and neoplastic tissues. We decided to study colorectal adenocarcinoma because of the general challenges of colonic MRI, including the nonsolid nature of the organ, peristalsis, and movement of the intraluminal contents. Thus, our aim in this preliminary study was to evaluate the usefulness of high-b-value DW-MRI in the detection of colorectal adenocarcinoma.

Thanks and Regards,
Michelle
Managing Editor
Colorectal Cancer: Open Access