Summary
DW-MRI has been widely applied for the evaluation of abdominal malignancies. In the liver, the use of DW-MRI is increasing, both for lesion detection as well as for lesion characterization. However, the potential for using DW-MRI to characterize tumours of the bile duct, pancreas, kidneys and other abdominal organs continues to evolve. Disease characterization relies on comparing the relative signal attenuation of tissues on images obtained at different b-values and also on the quantitative apparent diffusion coefficient of the tissue of interest. In this chapter, we summarize the application of DW-MRI for the purpose of tumour characterization in the abdomen, enabling the differentiation of benign from malignant disease, and providing novel information which may be of diagnostic or prognostic value.