Published online before print October 10, 2008, 10.1148/radiol.2492080038
(Radiology 2008;249:1017-1025.)
© RSNA, 2008
Prostate Carcinoma: Diffusion-weighted Imaging as Potential Alternative to Conventional MR and 11C-Choline PET/CT for Detection of Bone Metastases1
Wolfgang Luboldt, MD, MSc,
Rainer Küfer, MD,
Norbert Blumstein, MD,
Todd L. Toussaint,
Alexander Kluge, MD,
Marcus D. Seemann, MD, and
Hans-Joachim Luboldt, MD
1 From the Multiorgan Screening Foundation, Frankfurt, Germany (W.L., T.L.T., A.K., M.D.S.); Department of Radiology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany (W.L.); Clinic and Policlinic of Urology (R.K.) and Department of Nuclear Medicine (N.B.), University Hospital Ulm, Ulm, Germany; and Clinic and Policlinic of Urology, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany (H.J.L.). Received January 18, 2008; revision requested April 2; revision received May 5; accepted June 3; final version accepted June 16.
Address correspondence to W.L. (e-mail: luboldt{at}screening.org).
In a technical development study approved by the institutional ethics committee, the feasibility of fast diffusion-weighted imaging as a replacement for conventional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging sequences (short inversion time inversion recovery [STIR] and T1-weighted spin echo [SE]) and positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) in the detection of skeletal metastases from prostate cancer was evaluated. MR imaging and carbon 11 (11C) choline PET/CT data from 11 consecutive prostate cancer patients with bone metastases were analyzed. Diffusion-weighted imaging appears to be equal, if not superior, to STIR and T1-weighted SE sequences and equally as effective as 11C-choline PET/CT in detection of bone metastases in these patients. Diffusion-weighted imaging should be considered for further evaluation and comparisons with PET/CT for comprehensive whole-body staging and restaging in prostate and other cancers.
© RSNA, 2008
Copyright © 2008 by the Radiological Society of North America.