[Cross-section diagnosis of tumors of the kidney and prostate gland: CT and MRI].

Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) underwent significant technical advances in the past ten years, especially in the diagnostic evaluation of renal tumors. Either modality can perform unenhanced and contrast enhanced imaging with high resolution display of three-dimensional data sets of the entire abdomen including the arterial and the parenchymatous perfusion phase after injection of contrast medium. Multiplanar reconstructions of these three-dimensional data allow the display in any chosen orientation. The maximum intensity projection can create CT and MR angiograms. For the diagnosis of renal tumors, both modalities offer the possibility of a detailed visualization of both the parenchyma and the arterial and venous vessels, leading to an efficient preoperative work-up. For the MRI diagnosis of the prostate cancer, the achievable accuracy depends on the applied coil technique and on the available clinical information as well as on the experience of the examiner. For the preoperative MRI staging of prostate cancer, the accuracy has been stated to be between 51 % and 97 %.