Evaluation of female intrapelvic tumors by clinical proton MR spectroscopy

We measured metabolites in large tumors of the female pelvis (23 cases tota l: 6 malignant cases, 17 benign cases) using single-voxel proton magnetic r esonance (MR) spectroscopy and evaluated the clinical significance of this method in the differential diagnosis of female pelvic tumors. The character istically obtained signal was lactate, which was detected not only in all t he malignant tumors but also in some of the benign tumors. However, the lac tate signals of the malignant tumors tended to form higher peaks than those of benign tumors, which was a finding consistent with the result of the ea rlier in vitro study reported in ovarian tumors. The signal of choline-cont aining compounds (Cho) was found only in solid tumors, and the signal Inten sity varied among different histological types of tumors, possibly reflecti ng metabolic activity of the cell membrane. We considered that proton MR sp ectroscopy (MRS) of intrapelvic tumors would be useful for the diagnosis of the nature of female intrapelvic tumors. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.