Prospective evaluation of magnetic resonance enterography for the detection of mesenteric small bowel tumours

To prospectively evaluate magnetic resonance (MR) enterography for detecting mesenteric small-bowel tumours (MSBTs) and assess the added value of gadolinium-chelate injection. Over a 2-year period MR enterography examinations of 75 patients (33 men, 42 women; mean age, 53.8 years; range, 19-85) with suspected MSBT were blindly analysed by two readers for the presence of MSBT. Sensitivities, specificities, predictive positive values (PPVs), negative predictive values (NPVs) and accuracies of MR enterography for the detection of MSBT were calculated on per-patient and per-lesion bases. The McNemar test was used to compare sensitivities and specificities of the unenhanced and gadolinium-enhanced sets of MR enterographies. Thirty-seven MSBTs were pathologically confirmed in 26 patients. The mean tolerance score of the examinations was 0.7. On a per-patient basis, sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy for detection of MSBT were 96 % [95 % CI, 89-100 %], 96 % [90-100 %], 93 % [83-100 %], 98 % [94-100 %] and 96 % [92-100 %], respectively. On a per-lesion basis, sensitivity and PPV were 70 % [56-85 %] and 93 % [83-100 %], respectively. Gadolinium injection yielded higher sensitivities on both bases (P = 0.008). MR enterography is an accurate and well-tolerated imaging modality for detecting MSBT. Intravenous administration of gadolinium-chelate improves sensitivity for MSBT detection. aEuro cent MR enterography accurately detects mesenteric small bowel tumours. aEuro cent MR enterography is a well-tolerated imaging technique. aEuro cent Intravenous administration of gadolinium chelate improves sensitivity for detecting small-bowel tumours.