Diagnostic and clinical usefulness of thin-slice CT/DWI in the diagnosis of esophageal cancer lymph node metastasis

Background: We examined the complementary diagnostic results and clinical usefulness of Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging(DWI) in addition to the detection of esophageal cancer lymph node metastasis on thin-slice multidetector CT(thin-slice CT). Methods: The subjects included 95 patients of preoperatively esophageal cancer who underwent radical resection. And the following two items were evaluated.(1) The diagnostic results for the lymph nodes were examined in a retrospective study using single thin-slice CT and a combination of DWI and thin-slice CT(thin-slice CT/DWI).(2) The relationship between lymph node metastasis and the survival rate was assessed according to the thin-slice CT/DWI diagnosis. Results:(1) In the retrospective study based on the single thin-slice CT diagnosis, the sensitivity was 38%, the specificity was 80%, and the accuracy was 72%. On thin-slice CT/DWI, the sensitivity was 45%, the specificity was 99%, and the accuracy was 90%.(2) In a comparative study of the existence of positive lymph node metastasis and the survival rate according to the thin-slice CT/DWI diagnosis, the positive examples of lymph node metastasis were found to be significantly unfavorable. Conclusions: Thin-slice CT/DWI is useful for evaluating the patient’s condition and determining the prognosis.