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Metastatic lymph node calcification in rectal cancer: comparison of CT and high-resolution MRI

  • Pictorial Essay
  • Published:
Japanese Journal of Radiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Calcification causes mixed signal intensity in the lymph node (LN) on high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is a strong indicator of regional LN metastasis in rectal cancer. Calcified metastatic LNs in rectal cancer commonly display scattered fine punctate calcifications to varying degrees on computed tomography (CT). On high-resolution MRI, the calcifications manifest a patchy area of signal loss in corresponding calcified area that is larger than on CT. It is necessary to recognize the appearance of metastatic LN calcifications on high-resolution MRI in rectal cancer because it is the primary imaging method for local staging in rectal cancer. This pictorial essay aims to introduce an important imaging finding that can contribute to the diagnosis of LN metastasis by illustrating features and differences between CT and high-resolution MRI of metastatic LN calcifications in rectal cancer.

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Acknowledgements

We great thank Margaret Pui for her time and valuable contributions to the pictorial essay.

Funding

Support by Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2020A1515010796).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Yan Chen and Ziqiang Wen contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, China

    Yan Chen, Ziqiang Wen, Yuru Ma, Yiyan Liu, Yutao Que & Shenping Yu

  2. Department of Radiology, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510282, China

    Xinyue Yang

  3. MR Scientific Marketing, SIEMENS Healthineers Ltd., Guangzhou, 510620, China

    Yunzhu Wu

Authors
  1. Yan Chen
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  2. Ziqiang Wen
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  5. Yutao Que
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  6. Xinyue Yang
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  7. Yunzhu Wu
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  8. Shenping Yu
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Contributions

SY contributed to the study conception and design. The first draft of the manuscript was written by YC and ZW and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. YC and ZW contributed equally to this work and should be considered as co-first authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shenping Yu.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Chen, Y., Wen, Z., Ma, Y. et al. Metastatic lymph node calcification in rectal cancer: comparison of CT and high-resolution MRI. Jpn J Radiol 39, 642–651 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11604-021-01108-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11604-021-01108-6

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