Comparison of 3.0 T PAC versus 1.5 T ERC MRI in Detecting Local Prostate Carcinoma.

Increased utilization of prostate-specific antigen screening and prostate imaging has led to detection of smaller indolent tumors that traditional brachytherapy and prostectomy may be too aggressive for. New targeted techniques require greater locational accuracy of tumor detection to guide treatment. Prostate MRIs can be important for initial staging and for guiding targeted biopsies and treatments. We compared the accuracy of local staging of prostate cancer using 1.5 Tesla MRI with endorectal coil (ERC) versus 3 Tesla MRI with pelvic array coil (PAC) to the gold standard of trans-rectal US guided biopsies (TRUS). ERC is uncomfortable and has many imaging artifacts that may limit detection, so we hypothesize that 3 T MRI with PAC will have improved performance. 72 patients underwent prostate MRIs and TRUS prostate biopsies from 2008-2011 (33 were excluded due to prior radiation therapy, 24 patients underwent 1.5 T ERC and 15 underwent 3.0 T PAC.) 3.0 T PAC was trending towards greater sensitivity although we lack the statistical power for significance.