• Mayumi Takeuchi, Kenji Matsuzaki, and Hiromu Nishitani.
• Department of Radiology, University of Tokushima, Kuramoto-cho, Tokushima, Japan. mayumi@clin.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp
• J Comput Assist Tomogr. 2009 Nov 1; 33 (6): 834-7.

ObjectiveThe objective was to determine whether diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) might be useful in differentiating uterine leiomyomas exhibiting hyperintensity on T2-weighted images from malignant lesions.MethodsThirty-four uterine myometrial lesions including 7 malignant tumors and 27 leiomyomas (6 cellular leiomyomas [CLM] and 21 degenerated leiomyomas [DLM]) were evaluated. The apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) in cellular portions of the lesions were measured (10(-3) mm2/s).ResultsAll malignant tumors showed high signal intensity on DWI with low ADC (mean [SD], 0.79 [0.26]), which was significantly lower (P < 0.01) than that in benign leiomyomas (1.51 [0.33]). The ADC in CLM (1.18 [0.16]) was significantly lower (P < 0.01) than that in DLM (1.60 [0.30]) and higher (P < 0.05) than that in malignant tumors.ConclusionsIt was difficult to differentiate malignant tumors from leiomyomas on the basis of signal intensity on DWI; however, the ADC measurement may be helpful to distinguish malignant tumors, CLM, and DLM.

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