Search

A total of 7 healthy volunteers and 31 patients have been examined clinically, by MRI, TRS, and biopsy. In those patients with established carcinoma, a CT examination was also performed. For the MRI study, a superconducting MR 2000 imager (Picker International) operated at 0.15 T was used with multiplanar SE and IR sequences. SE sequences with long echo times detected prostatitis, adenoma and carcinoma of the prostate with a high degree of sensitivity. However, at present, differentiation between adenoma, prostatitis and carcinoma is not possible with sufficient accuracy. In these studies we were unable to establish a correlation between the signal pattern and staging and/or grading of the carcinoma. Reliable diagnosis of a prostate carcinoma still requires a biopsy. Because of the high soft tissue contrast and the possibility of selecting any orientation for the plane under investigation, however, MRI represents an improvement in the preoperative diagnosis of local spread.

Benign tumors in the upper parts of the urinary tract are rare. The clinical symptoms of flank pain and/or macrohematuria often present problems concerning differential diagnosis. As radiological sign the smoothly bound filling defect with possible ureter obstruction is characteristic but not convincing. Therefore the diagnosis can only be made by operation and a simultaneous histological analysis. This report is based on a female patient with symptoms of flank pain and macrohematuria. By operative exploration a fibrous ureteral polyp was found which was then excised through an ureterotomy.