[Recurrent rectal cancer: diagnosis by contrast enhancement in MD-CT]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the recurrence of rectal cancer could by diagnosed reliably by contrast enhancement.

A total of 83 patients were included after surgery and radiotherapy for rectal cancer. All patients received a minimum of three CT-examinations in their follow-up program. The contrast enhancement between the native scan and after admission of 75 ml Iopromid 370 mg/ml was calculated, as was the correlation between muscle enhancement and the enhancement of the suspicious lesion.

The only acceptable results for the diagnosis of recurrence were established by using the difference in the density of the suspicious lesion before and after admission of contrast media. No statistically significant difference was found for any of the enhancement parameters examined.

Static contrast enhancement of a suspicious lesion in MD-CT cannot confirm the diagnosis of a recurrence.