Diagnostic Performance of Thin Section MR in the T3 Staging of Rectal Cancer:a Comparative Analysis with Histopathology

Objective To study the value of Thin section MRI in T3 staging of rectal cancer.Methods Fifty eight patients with rectal cancer underwent thin section MR scan.The MR features of rectal cancer were analyzed by two radiologists.The T staging features were compared with pathological results.Results The consistency between MR T staging features and pathological results were perfect(Kappa=0.82).The MR T staging features were found to have strong positive linear correlation to pathological T staging(rs=0.874,P0.01).The MR features,such as fiberal strip surrounding rectal wall,hypointensity of muscular layer discontinued,nodular evagination and blurry mesenterium,had T3 staging accuracy of 67.2%,93.1%,84.5% and 72.4%,T3 staging sensitivity of 64.5%,93.5%,70.9%,77.4%,and T3 staging specificity of 70.4%,92.6%,100%,66.7% respectively.Conclusion The Thin section MRI features can be helpful for T3 staging of rectal cancer preoperatively.