Martin T. Freitag1,
Mathies Breithaupt2, Ann-Kathrin Homagk2, Moritz Berger2,
Bram Stieltjes1
1Quantitative
Imaging-based Disease Characterization, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ),
Heidelberg, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany; 2Department of Medical
Physics in Radiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg,
Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany
Clinical imaging of inguinal lymph nodes plays a vital role in cancer staging. However, conventional MRI approaches lacks sufficient sensitivity to detect micro-metastasis in lymph nodes. Here, we present a feasible in vivo high resolution approach to visualize inguinal lymph nodes at 7 Tesla. Using a T1 sequence and a loop-coil we could stably acquire data at a 0.38x0.38x0.38 mm isotropic resolution. Normal lymph node architecture could be well visualized in all healthy subjects. In the melanoma patient, the absence of a fat hilus and the nodal infiltration with pathological vessels, both signs of malignant transformation, could be recognized readily.