Study of dynamic contrast-enhanced characteristics of stage-I endometrial carcinomas versus polyps with 3.0 T MRI]

To comparatively analyze the dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) characteristics and its clinical value between stage-I endometrial carcinomas versus polyps with 3.0T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).A retrospective analysis was performed for DCE-MRI manifestation in 27 patients with histopathologically proved endometrial masses. There were stage-I endometrial carcinomas (n = 14) and polyps (n = 13). The signal intensity of solid component was measured and time-intensity curves (TIC) was obtained. TIC of lesions were divided into 4 subtypes. The time-to-peak (TTP) and signal intensity (SI) were determined from TICs. The arterial phase relative signal increase ratio (ARSIR), maximal relative signal increase ratio (MRSIR), signal enhancement ratio (SER) and signal intensity difference values (D) of each phase were calculated based on TIC curves respectively.The TIC of 14 stage-I endometrial carcinomas included type I (n = 4), type II (n = 6) and type IV (n = 4). The TIC of 13 polyps included type III (n = 3) and type IV (n = 10). The D values in each phase of 14 stage-I endometrial carcinomas were lower than normal muscle layers. There were statistic differences (P < 0.05) of each phase including 32, 48, 64, 109, 154, 199 s. For stage-I endometrial carcinomas, MRSIR and TTP were lower (P < 0.01) than normal muscle layers while SER was higher (P < 0.01) than normal muscle layers . The each phase of D of stage-I endometrial carcinomas were lower than polyps, and there were statistic differences (P < 0.05) of each phase including 32, 48, 64, 109, 154, 199 s. The MRSIR and TTP of stage-I endometrial carcinomas were lower (P < 0.01) than those of polyps while SER was higher (P < 0.01) than polyps.DCE-MRI can reflect enhanced features of stage-I endometrial carcinomas and polyps during different phases quantitatively. Parameters of DCE-MR and TIC are helpful in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of stage-I endometrial carcinomas versus polyps.