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MR staging of nodal metastases in patients with rectal cancer using criteria based on size, shape and signal intensity can be difficult, because ≥50% of the nodes are less than 5mm in size. Therefore new MR criteria were evaluated to see whether it can improve the MR assessment of nodal metastases in rectal cancer patients.

Ninety-nine patients with primary rectal carcinoma underwent 1.5T high-resolution MRI with a quadrature phased array coil. Among them, 75 patients who had undergone total mesorectal excision were enrolled in this study. An MR radiologist, blinded for the histological results, randomly recorded the characteristics of each detectable node (LN); common criteria such as short-axis diameter, the ratio of long- to short-axis diameter, and signal intensity on each sequence; new criteria such as the margin (smooth, lobulated, spiculated, indistinct), a homogenous or …