Wednesday, December 4 | 1:30 p.m.-1:40 p.m. | W6-SSOB03-1 | Room S402
Conversation is brewing about prep for MRI pelvis in evaluating endometriosis in the bowel, according to this scientific session.
Before March 2018, NYU Langone routinely administered rectal contrast gel in its MRI pelvis protocol to assess endometriosis. Administering the gel requires time, money, and skilled personnel without the benefits of improved lesion detection or interreader variability. Thus, the institution discontinued using the gel but maintained the remaining protocol.
More recently, however, some gynecologists have shown interest in restarting using rectal contrast gel in MRI pelvis, prompting the efficacy study featured during this session. There is some thought that rectal contrast gel will distend the bowel wall to allow better visualization of the bowel, according to presenter Angela Tong, MD, clinical assistant professor and director of prostate imaging in the abdominal imaging section at NYU Langone Health.
The study included 71 consecutive adult patients who had MRI pelvis with rectal contrast gel who were receiving imaging for pelvic pain or endometriosis and surgical/pathological follow-up within one year. As a comparison, researchers included 73 consecutive patients who had MRI pelvis without rectal contrast gel, matched by surgical findings and meeting the same inclusion/exclusion criteria.
Readers evaluated for rectal lesions, mural involvement, and overall disease severity, using the deep pelvic endometriosis index system. Further, comparisons of rectal lesion detection to the gold standard of surgical findings were made, and sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were obtained and compared with and without rectal contrast gel for each reader.
So will rectal contrast improve MRI reads? Drop in to learn what the data showed, plus find out the larger questions the researchers considered.
