[Staging urinary bladder cancer with dynamic MR imaging]

This article reviews the magnetic resonance (MR) staging of bladder cancer. The multiplanar and soft-tissue characterization capabilities of MR imaging make it a valuable diagnostic tool to image the urinary bladder. Recent advances of MR imaging such as fast imaging, pelvic phased array coil, and dynamic imaging improve the image quality and diagnostic accuracy for staging bladder cancer. Some patient-related factors are also important for optimal imaging of the urinary bladder, especially motion artifacts from the gastrointestinal tract and the degree of bladder distension. An anticholinergic agent should be used for suppressing the motion artifacts. Optimal bladder filling can be achieved by asking patients to void and drink water 1 hour before examinations. Scanning perpendicular to the bladder wall is necessary for optimal evaluation for staging bladder cancer. Oblique scanning is needed in cases when a tumor is not located on the dome, base, anterior wall, posterior wall, or lateral walls. The early phase image of dynamic imaging is most useful for staging tumors. Better contrast between tumor and bladder wall on dynamic images provides high staging accuracy, especially in differentiation between superficial tumors and tumors with muscle invasion. MR imaging is comparable to computed tomography (CT) in the evaluation of lymph nodes. Although MR imaging currently is not appropriate for screening for bladder cancer and detecting small tumors, it has been proved to be most useful in the staging of bladder cancer.