الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Endometrial carcinoma is the fourth most common female cancer and the most common malignancy of the female reproductive tract. Incidence of the disease is increasing due to longevity and rising levels of obesity. The vast majority of patients with endometrial carcinoma, about 80% to 90%, present with post menopausal bleeding. MRI has long been established as a valuable diagnostic tool in the preoperative diagnostic staging of endometrial carcinoma. DWI is a new imaging technique which depicts tissue characteristics based on diffusion motion of water molecules. Initially the usefulness of this technique was established in central nervous system, and now DWI is the most accurate modality for diagnosing acute brain infarction. The technique is applied to the abdominal organs and is known to depict malignant tumors with high sensitivity. DWI can also provide values of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of tissues under investigation. It is known that the ADC values of malignant neoplasms are lower than those of normal tissues and benign lesions. In endometrial carcinoma the highly cellular tissues and relatively little extracellular space lead to restricted motion of water molecules, causing decreased ADC values. |