MR imaging in tumor invasion of the chest wall

The authors have used MR imaging to study 22 patients who had intrathoracic, pleura-related malignancies and whose CT findings had suggested chest wall invasion. ECG-gated T1- and T2-weighted spin-echo sequences were used in all patients. Additionally, in 10 patients an ungated, multisection, gradient-echo sequence was used, which was repeated after intravenous administration of Gd-DTPA in five patients. Surgery confirmed chest wall invasion in 19 patients. CT showed tumor invasion only in 14 of these 19 patients. MR imaging showed high-signal-intensity lesion within chest wall and pleura in T2-weighted and Gd-DTPA-enhanced T1-weighted images as the typical pattern of chest wall invasion in all 19 patients. Two of the three patients with pleural inflammation and without chest wall invasion had high-signal-intensity pleural lesions, but none of these lesions were within the chest wall