[Assessment of intraperitoneal drug distribution during intraperitoneal chemotherapy using saline-injected MR imaging...

Intraperitoneal saline-injected MR imaging through an implanted catheter-port system (saline-MRI) was conducted in 7 patients with ovarian tumor after surgical removal of the primary tumor. Two types of T2 weighted coronal images of the abdomen were obtained after saline injection through the implanted catheter-port system. One uses long TE (about 1000 msec) with fat-saturation and thick slices (100 mm thickness) to depict the injected saline alone. The other uses medium TE (about 100 msec) without fat-saturation and thin slices (10 mm thickness) to depict both intraperitoneal saline and abdominal structures. Saline sequentially fills the Douglas pouch, paracolic gutter, Morison's pouch and subphrenic space in most patients. The relation between injected saline and abdominal structures was seen well on T2-weighted images using medium TE. Adhesions of the peritoneum were well demonstrated. In one patient, a catheter perforation to the bowel loop was diagnosed, because the small bowel loop was immediately filled with injected saline. Saline-MRI can be used to depict intraperitoneal drug distribution during intraperitoneal chemotherapy and can diagnose complications related to intraperitoneal chemotherapy.