K. Takahashi et al., STUDIES ON THE DETECTION OF SMALL ENDOMETRIAL IMPLANTS BY MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING USING A FAT-SATURATION TECHNIQUE, Gynecologic and obstetric investigation, 41(3), 1996, pp. 203-206
To assess the usefulness of fat-saturated magnetic resonance (MR) imag
ing in detecting small endometrial implants, 258 pigmented lesions of
endometriosis from 80 consecutive patients with histophatologically di
agnosed pelvic endometriosis were compared using fat-saturated and con
ventional MR imaging. MR imaging was performed with a 1.5-tesla superc
onducting magnet with spin echo T-1-, T-2-, and fat-saturated T-1-weig
hted images. Both conventional MR images and fat-saturated MR images p
ermitted identification of almost all endometriomas > 10 mm in diamete
r. With conventional MR imaging, 29 endometrial implants measuring < 1
0 mm in diameter were detected. One hundred and seven lesions were det
ected by fat-saturated MR imaging. However, conventional MR images dem
onstrated only 4 lesions among these 111 small endometrial implants th
at measured < 5 mm in diameter. The addition of fat-saturated MR imagi
ng increased the detection rate to 55 of 111 lesions. Fat-saturated MR
imaging can, therefore, be useful in detecting small endometrial impl
ants.