Radiologic diagnosis of adenomyomatosis of the gallbladder: comparative study among MRI, helical CT, and transabdominal US.

PURPOSE: The goal of this work was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of transabdominal ultrasound (US), helical CT, and MRI in the diagnosis of adenomyomatosis (ADM) of the gallbladder.

METHOD: Twenty patients with surgically proven ADM were included, all of whom underwent preoperative US, helical CT with 3 mm collimation, and MRI with half-Fourier rapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement (RARE). All images were retrospectively reviewed by two radiologists, and the presence of ADM was assessed at three compartments (neck, body, and fundus) of the organ. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed, and sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were calculated for each modality.

RESULTS: The A z values (area under the curve) for MRI, helical CT, and US were 0.98, 0.85, and 0.72 for the Reader 1, respectively, showing no statistically significant interobserver difference in any of the three modalities. MRI showed a significantly higher A z value than helical CT or US (p < 0.1). The accuracies of MRI, helical CT, and US were 93, 75, and 66%, respectively.

CONCLUSION: Among the three modalities tested, MRI with half-Fourier RARE sequence was the most accurate for diagnosing ADM.