Department of Medical Images, Radiation Therapy and Oncohematology, Ribeirao Preto Medical School, Hospital Clinicas, University of São Paulo, Av. Bandeirantes 3900, Campus Monte Alegre, Ribeirão Prêto, 14049-900, Brazil.
Department of Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
Abdom Radiol (NY). 2020 Dec;45(12):4003-4011. doi: 10.1007/s00261-020-02528-0.
The question referred to in the title of this article is a relatively common situation when performing prostate MRI in some healthcare settings. Moreover, the answer is not always straightforward. The decisions on type of receiver coil for prostate MRI and whether or not an endorectal coil (ERC) should be used is based on several factors. These relate to the patient (e.g., body habitus, presence of metallic devices in the pelvis), the focus of the exam (diagnosis, staging, recurrence), and characteristics of the MRI system (e.g., magnetic field strength and hardware components including coil design and number of elements/channels available in the surface coil). Historically, the combined use of an ERC and a surface coil was the optimal combination for maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), particularly for low-strength magnetic fields (1.5T). However, there are several disadvantages associated with the use of an ERC, and several studies have advocated equivalent clinical performance of modern MRI systems for diagnosis and staging of prostate cancer (PCa), either with ERC or surface alone. Accordingly, there is a wide variation in the precise imaging technique across institutions. This article focuses on the most relevant aspects of the decision of whether to use an ERC for PCa MR imaging.
本文标题所提出的问题在某些医疗环境中进行前列腺 MRI 检查时是一种相对常见的情况。而且，答案并不总是那么明确。对于前列腺 MRI 所使用的接收线圈类型以及是否应使用直肠内线圈（ERC）的决策取决于多个因素。这些因素包括患者（例如，体型、骨盆内是否有金属器械）、检查重点（诊断、分期、复发）以及 MRI 系统的特点（例如，磁场强度以及硬件组件，包括线圈设计和表面线圈中可用的元件/通道数量）。从历史上看，ERC 和表面线圈的联合使用是最大化信噪比（SNR）的最佳组合，特别是在低场强（1.5T）的情况下。然而，ERC 的使用存在一些缺点，并且有几项研究主张在诊断和分期前列腺癌（PCa）方面，使用 ERC 或单独使用表面线圈的现代 MRI 系统具有等效的临床性能。因此，各机构之间的精确成像技术存在广泛差异。本文重点介绍在 PCa MR 成像中是否使用 ERC 的决策的最相关方面。
