Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The aim of the present study was to investigate the accuracy of diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) in differentiation of malignant from benign gynecologic lesions.

METHODS

A total of 125 patients who underwent pelvic MRI with an initial diagnosis of gynecologic mass included in the study. The MRI examinations were performed on a 1.5 Tesla MR imaging system. The DWI protocol included water excitation with three b values (100, 600 and 1000s/mm2) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps were created. Mean ADC values were calculated in 125 gynecologic lesions.

RESULTS

We observed significantly lower ADC values in malignant lesions compared with benign ones in all b values (p= 0.047 for b100, p<0.001 for b600, p<0.001 for b1000). We also evaluated the cut-off points of ADC value for differentiation of malignant from benign lesions and observed 1.6x10–3 mm2/s for b100 with a sensitivity of 40% and a specificity of 88%; 1.4x10–3 mm2/s for b600 with a sensitivity of 57% and a specificity of 77%, and 0.9x10–3 mm2/s for b1000 with a sensitivity of 57% and a specificity of 91%. According to these analyses, ADC value at b1000 was found to have the highest accuracy for differentiation of malignant from benign gynecologic lesions.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

ADC measurements can be used for differentiation of malignant from benign gynecologic lesions.