Magnetic resonance imaging of neuroblastoma with a 0.15-T magnet

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in nine children with neuroblastoma showed that MRI can effectively demonstrate primary and metastatic disease and aid in predicting tumor resectability. MRI can show changes in tumor size and intensity in response to chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Neuroblastomas have an image intensity much lower than that of liver and muscle on inversion-recovery scans. On spin-echo 500/30 scans, the tumors have a greater intensity than muscle and a similar or slightly greater intensity than liver. On spin-echo 1000/60 scans, they are always of greater intensity than liver or muscle. At this stage, the overall accuracy of MRI as compared with other imaging methods is not known.