Clinical Value of Diffusion-Weighted Whole-Body Imaging with Background Body Signal Suppression (DWIBS) for Staging of Patients with Suspected Head and Neck Cancer

Abstract

(1) Background: To determine the importance of diffusion-weighted whole-body MRI with background body signal suppression (DWIBS) in the staging process of patients with suspected head and neck carcinomas. (2) Methods: A total of 30 patients (24 male, 6 female) with a median age of 67 years with clinically suspected head and neck carcinoma with pathologic cervical nodal swelling in ultrasound underwent the staging procedure with computed tomography (CT) and whole-body MRI including DWIBS. (3) Results: In a total of 9 patients, abnormalities in the routine work-up of pretherapeutic staging were found. Five cases of either secondary cancer or distant metastases were only visible in DWIBS, while being missed on CT. One diagnosis was only detectable in CT and not in DWIBS, whereas three diagnoses were recognizable in both modalities. (4) Conclusions: DWIBS in addition to a standard neck MRI in cervical lymphadenopathy suspicious for head and neck cancer yielded additional clinically relevant diagnoses in 17% of cases that would have been missed by current staging routine procedures. DWIBS offered a negative predictive value of 98.78% for ruling out distant metastases or secondary malignancies.

A novel use of diffusion-weighted whole-body magnetic resonance imaging with background body signal suppression to diagnose infectious aortitis

“…If the two readers’ opinions differ, they discuss them together for a final qualitative evaluation. 10,23…”

“…If the two readers' opinions differ, they discuss them together for a final qualitative evaluation. 10,23 The findings for a positive CT diagnosis were a periaortic mass, periaortic gas, rapid aortic dilation, and a change in aortic morphology over time. 2 Moreover, specific findings associated with aortic graft infection included swelling around the prosthetic graft, the formation of a fistula or pseudoaneurysm, and the retention of fluid or gas around the graft.…”

“…DWIBS was initially developed to evaluate primary tumors and metastases in cancer and has demonstrated diagnostic performance comparable to PET/CT. [9][10][11][12] Its utility in evaluating Takayasu arteritis activity, spine and soft tissue infections, and All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.…”

Diagnostic Value of Diffusion-Weighted Imaging with Background Body Signal Suppression (DWIBS) for the Pre-Therapeutic Loco-Regional Staging of Cervical Cancer: A Feasibility and Interobserver Reliability Study

“…Through the black-and-white reversal technology, DWIBS could achieve a similar effect with positron emission tomography (PET) and obtain PET-like images. DWIBS has been widely applied in the clinical diagnosis of brain, nerve and abdomino-pelvic diseases as well as in the staging routine of multiple different cancerous entities [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. A larger field of view facilitates the detection of lymph nodes in the pelvic and para-aortic region with an accuracy of 97 and 67%, respectively.…”

Additional Diffusion-Weighted Imaging with Background Body Signal Suppression (DWIBS) Improves Pre-Therapeutical Detection of Early-Stage (pT1a) Glottic Cancer: A Feasibility and Interobserver Reliability Study

“…Through the black-and-white reversal technology, DWIBS obtains PET-like images. DWIBS has been widely applied in the clinical diagnosis of brain, nerve, and abdominopelvic diseases, as well as in the staging routine of various cancer entities [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ].…”