Abstract #0170
A comparison of image quality and prostate cancer localization and staging performance between body array coil and endorectal coil MR imaging at 3T.
Heijmink S, Ftterer J, Scheenen T, Hulsbergen-v.d. Kaa C, Witjes J, Barentsz J, Takahashi S
Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center
When going from 1.5T to 3T it is unclear whether the endorectal coil (ERC) is still necessary for localizing and staging prostate cancer. Therefore, this study compared the image quality, localization and staging accuracies of prostate cancer at 3T between body array coil (BAC) and ERC MR imaging. Significantly more motion artifacts were present at ERC imaging compared with BAC imaging. All other image quality characteristics improved significantly with ERC imaging. Although image quality improved, localization performance was equal for BAC and ERC imaging. For staging, however, the ERC was necessary to achieve high sensitivity in detecting locally advanced disease.