Abstract
It has been long known that women with symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction frequently have involvement of multiple compartments. MRI of the pelvic floor allows simultaneous assessment of all three compartments of the pelvic floor before surgery in patients with pelvic floor dysfunction and patients in whom conservative management is unsuccessful. In so doing, MRI may reduce the risk of surgical failure and the recurrence or persistence of the debilitating symptoms after surgery. The use of ultrafast T2-weighted sagittal MRI described in this article allows noninvasive dynamic imaging of the pelvic floor, providing anatomic and functional information that will be useful to urogynecologists and surgeons. In addition, the use of high-resolution axial T2-weighted sequences of the pelvis allows identification of torn muscles and ligaments in patients with pelvic floor dysfunction who require surgery. The use of the pubococcygeal and H and M reference lines in the interpretation of the MR images is a simple method of identifying pelvic organ descent. For complete assessment of the severity of pelvic organ prolapse, MRI findings should be correlated with the severity of the patient's clinical symptoms.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | S45-S53 |
Journal | American Journal of Roentgenology |
Volume | 191 |
Issue number | 6 SUPPL. |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2008 |
Keywords
- Cystocele
- MRI
- Pelvic floor dysfunction
- Rectocele
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging