MR imaging methods for endometrial cancer

MRI plays an important role in the imaging diagnosis of endometrial cancer. It not only directly displays the tumor morphology, but also stages the endometrial cancer. MR imaging methods for endometrial cancer:

1. Preparation before the examination: To reduce the artifacts caused by intestinal peristalsis during the examination, the patient needs to fast for 4 to 6 hours before the examination, or inject anti-intestinal peristalsis drugs such as 6542 and glucagon. The bladder needs to be properly filled before the examination to facilitate the contrast with the adjacent tissue structures, but the bladder should also be prevented from being overfilled, which may cause discomfort to the patient and produce motion artifacts.

2. Conventional MRI: Conventional MR imaging mainly includes T1WI, T2WI and contrast-enhanced T1WI in the non-enhanced state. Among them, the cross-section of T1WI is mainly used to evaluate the pelvis and abdomen in order to find lymph node and bone marrow changes; the cross-section and sagittal plane of T2WI are mainly used to evaluate the primary tumor and the presence or absence of myometrial invasion and cervical involvement, and can provide a gross morphological observation of the pelvis. The tumor blood flow information provided by contrast-enhanced T1WI can further assist in the determination of tumor myometrial invasion and cervical involvement.

3. Functional MRI: Different from conventional MRI which mainly displays anatomical structures, functional MRI can further evaluate the functional characteristics of tumors, such as blood flow and molecular diffusion. The functional MRI methods currently used in endometrial cancer mainly include MR dynamic contrast-enhanced imaging (DCEMRI) and MR diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). As an important supplement and development of conventional MRI, functional MRI should be used as a routine auxiliary scanning sequence for endometrial cancer MRI examination.