MRI For Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
MRI technology has substantially improved in recent years, and some experts consider it time to re-evaluate its use in treatment decision making. The new generation of MRI devices and additional technological advances (improved contrast and special processing) are used simultaneously in selected image centers to produce clear prostate images.
In this image, even small areas of cancer can be revealed in color, allowing radiologists to determine exactly where the tumor lies in the prostatic gland. MRI for prostate cancer diagnosis. Technology is so new that the published data are rare-but promising. A study found that the new technique has an accuracy rate of 95% (see "New Generation MRI" below). You can also see some examples of new generation images in Figures 1 and 2 below. Here, Dr. Rofsky, from Harvard's Deaconess Medical center Beth Israel, talks more about the new MRI technologies that can benefit the patient, and the advantages and disadvantages of MRI are relative to other imaging modes. (See Also: Stage 4 Prostate Cancer Prognosis)
MRI For Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
The MRI can be performed with or without an endorectal coil. What are the advantages or disadvantages of the inclusion of endorectal coils? MRI for prostate cancer diagnosis detection screening - The endorectal coil in the MRI function is a little bit like a television antenna. It is a thin wire, covered with small balloons that are bloated and put into the rectum. After the MRI device is turned on, the coil receives a magnetic wave, which we will analyze with the computer to obtain information about the magnetic properties of the network Those. The closer the coil is to the target network, the stronger the signal. (The bases of MRI technology are described in "MRI bases" below.) The disadvantage of the endorectal coil is that it can be uncomfortable. Fortunately, most people are able to overcome this. We regularly inject muscle relaxants to help the muscles of the rectal wall to relax easily and increase comfort. We can also provide patients with mild sedation to reduce anxiety.Another MRI technology is available and why do you think this improves the diagnosis and stage of prostate cancer?
After the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center acquired 3T scanners with funding from generous philanthropists, we achieved a very good image of the prostate gland, using traditional rolls placed on the body. But we have a great chance to improve the image and More so that two of our colleagues at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center were among the researchers who developed the original Endorectal coil while at the University of Pennsylvania-Robert Lenkinski, Vice-president of Radiology and Director of Radiological Research at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School; Herbert Kressel, currently a radiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Miriam H. Stoneman, professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School. I talked to them and suggested we develop a special coil to be used in the 3T scanner. We work with medical devices companies and develop suitable endorectal coils for 3T scanners. When I saw some of the first images created using this new coil, I realized that this would be a game changer.
Why is that? The combination of a stronger scanner and an endorectal coil, along with improved contrast image enhancements, results in an anatomical level of detail that we have never seen before. The higher the magnetic force, the clearer the image? That's right. One way to understand the importance of Tesla's higher scores is that powerful magnets create stronger signals, which we can use to build a much larger spatial resolution in images.
MRI For Prostate Cancer Detection
Six points below are the basics on MRI you should know. The six basic MRI of the need to understand the details. Here are the basics of MRI below:- IRM uses the electromagnetic properties of hydrogen molecules to gather information about other organs and tissues and to convert them into images.
- Tissue tissue has a different set of magnetic properties than the normal tissue surrounding. The MRI can capture this distinction.
- Ionizing radiation, which are of the kind used to produce X-rays or CT, poses certain risks, since too high exposure to this form of radiation can damage genetic material. But the MRI does not involve ionizing radiation, so there is no danger in the case of single or repeated exposure.
- The MRI takes 45 minutes to a little over an hour.
- Before participating in the MRI, your doctor will ask you if you have any electronic or metallic medical equipment in your body, such as a pacemaker or a metal clip, stud or screw. This precaution is necessary because the magnetic MRI is so powerful that it can interfere with the pacemaker or replace some implanted clips.
- MRI magnets are measured in Tesla units (T), in honor of Nikola Tesla, a renowned physicist and electrical engineer who is very interested in magnetic fields. MRI magnets generally work between 0, T and 3T. Most diagnostic works in recent years are at 1 T.
Can you talk more about enhanced contrast images and how it has been improved recently? Radiologists can make the MRI image clearer by using contrast environments, which have their own magnetic properties. Therefore, some people receive injections with contrast environments or sometimes called "dyes" before they are subjected to MRI. For a short period of time, because contrast material passes through the preferred tissue, it will change the magnetic properties of the tissue, depending on the quantity and absorption rate. And that gives us a lot of information to characterize the network.
The problem is that contrast enhancement is difficult because it asks you to collect images so quickly that you lose a certain level of spatial resolution in the process. But researchers in Europe and Israel collaborated on ways to tackle the problem. While at the University of Vienna, Dr. B. Nicolas Bloch develops a better approach to contrast with prostate imaging that provides a better spatial resolution. He originally worked in collaboration with Dr. Hadassa Degani, a phenomenal researcher at the Weizmann Science Institute, working with breast tissue. Dr. Bloch became a radiology researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he perfected the technique and applied it to prostate imaging using a 3T scanner.
Also use MRI spectroscopy? If so, can you explain what it is? MR spectroscopy provides a way to look at certain chemical properties on a particular network. So we can get information about molecular structure and metabolites, giving us a lot of details about the prostatic gland. We combine many "visible" MRI in the prostate to get unique information and then use all this information together to formulate a clearer picture of what happens in the individual prostatic gland.
And as a result, do you provide better information about the diagnosis? Using contrasting images with high-resolution contrast, we think we can make a prostate cancer at a much better stage. We can provide patients with specific information about the disease level. And, of course, it will help people and their physicians to make better informed decisions of treatment.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the prostate ultrasound imaging compared to the MRI? The advantage of ultrasound is that it is readily available and, from a hospital perspective, a cheaper buying technology. However, this technology has limits. For example, when ultrasounds are used to guide the prostate biopsy, it allows physicians to find the prostatic gland for placing dirty needle, but ultrasound does not provide reliable information about where Cancer. As a result, the biopsy consists of a random sample of regions within the prostate.
In the MRI, especially with this new technology, we can show where cancer could be in the prostatic gland. Allows a doctor to target, not random sampling of the prostate.
MRI for prostate cancer diagnosis, detection screening - How accurate is this new MRI technology? I did the research, now at the press, with a comparison of side-by-side MRI images and proper pathology slides. So basically, we're trying to slip the glands into the pathology exactly as the "slice" glands inside the patient. This is known as the "whole mountain" technique for pathology. Direct prostate during pathology, so it matches the way the gland is imaging-oriented and glides exactly as individual images are obtained in the MRI. In this way, we try to repeat what happened to the imaging session with the specimen of pathology. In our last number, we have a 95% accuracy rate. So, in other words, 95% of the time stages that we anticipate using MRI before surgery are confirmed later when the gland is sent to pathology. This is important because underestimation is an alarming regularity in prostate cancer. At national level, up to 40% to 50% of men who initially estimated to have cancer at the beginning of the study, will later learn that they have a wider disease, although it varies according to the institution.