[Clinical significance of nuclear magnetic resonance tomography in urology. Initial experiences]

NMR tomography, which is based on nuclear magnetic resonance, enables the production of sectional images of the human body without ionising radiation. In particular, the field of urology places great hopes on this new procedures, since the contrast in soft tissue is considerably better than that of computer tomography. Our first clinical results confirm the advantages of the soft tissue differentiation as well as the possibility to judge the large vessels safely and simultaneously without contrast medium, which is advantageous in the detection of tumours in the retroperitoneum and in the region of the kidneys. An improvement of the preoperative staging of urological tumours can be achieved by means of primary three-dimensional images. Only after several years of experience with NMR tomography and all its variations will it be able to evaluate properly, to what extent clinically relevant diagnostic possibilities are offered by the analysis of relaxation values.