MR diagnosis of diaphragmatic endometriosis

article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 44 in-corpus citations
AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06+body, 2026-06-07

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrates 78% to 83% sensitivity in diagnosing diaphragmatic endometriosis, with excellent interobserver agreement for lesion detection.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 · read from full text

The paper retrospectively reviewed all diaphragmatic MRI studies performed in the context of diaphragmatic endometriosis over a 2-year period, with two independent readers assessing fat-suppressed axial and coronal T1- and T2-weighted sequences for specific lesion patterns (nodules, plaque lesions, micronodule clustering, and focal liver herniation). MRI findings were correlated with surgical findings in surgically treated women, and interobserver agreement was quantified with kappa statistics. MRI sensitivity was 78–83% depending on reader (83% for reader 1; 78% for reader 2) with excellent interobserver agreement (kappa 0.86), and lesions were mostly right-sided posterior nodules hyperintense on T1; MRI was negative in two surgically treated patients with small nodules or isolated diaphragmatic holes. The limitation is that the dataset was relatively small and includes cases with diagnostic confirmation either by surgery or by symptom relief on hormonal treatment rather than uniform surgical verification. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it evaluates MRI diagnostic performance for diaphragmatic endometriosis.

Read from the paper's body, not the abstract. Not a substitute for reading the paper. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

PurposeTo evaluate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for diaphragmatic endometriosis diagnosis.Materials and methodsOver a 2-year period, all diaphragmatic MRI performed in the context of diaphragmatic endometriosis were reviewed. Axial and coronal fat-suppressed T1- and T2-weighted sequences were analyzed by two independent readers for the presence of nodules, plaque lesions, micronodule clustering, or focal liver herniation. MR abnormalities were correlated to surgical findings in women surgically treated. Interobserver agreement was assessed by κ statistics.ResultsTwenty-three women with diaphragmatic endometriosis criteria comprised the population; 14 had surgical confirmation and nine had symptoms relief with hormonal treatment. MRI sensitivity was 83 % (19/23; 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 68, 98) for reader 1 and 78 % (18/23; 95 % CI: 61, 95) for reader 2. Kappa value was 0.86 (95 % CI: 0.47, 1.00). Readers 1 and 2 detected 35 and 36 lesions, respectively, all right-sided and agreed for 32 lesions on the type, location, and signal. Lesions were mostly nodules (23/32, 72 %), predominantly posterior (28/32, 87.5 %) and hyperintense on T1 (20/32, 63 %). MRI was negative for both readers in 2 surgically treated patients with small nodules or isolated diaphragmatic holes.ConclusionMRI allows diaphragmatic endometriosis diagnosis with 78 to 83 % sensitivity and excellent interobserver agreement.Key points• MRI allows the diagnosis of diaphragmatic endometriosis with up to 83 % sensitivity. • Diaphragmatic endometriosis lesions are better depicted on fat-suppressed T1-weighted sequences. • Diaphragmatic lesions, mostly hyperintense nodules, are right-sided and predominantly posterior. • MRI can help in timely diagnosis of diaphragmatic endometriosis.
Full text 8,651 characters · extracted from oa-doi-fallback · 5 sections · click to expand

Abstract

Purpose To evaluate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for diaphragmatic endometriosis diagnosis.

Materials and methods

Over a 2-year period, all diaphragmatic MRI performed in the context of diaphragmatic endometriosis were reviewed. Axial and coronal fat-suppressed T1- and T2-weighted sequences were analyzed by two independent readers for the presence of nodules, plaque lesions, micronodule clustering, or focal liver herniation. MR abnormalities were correlated to surgical findings in women surgically treated. Interobserver agreement was assessed by κ statistics.

Results

Twenty-three women with diaphragmatic endometriosis criteria comprised the population; 14 had surgical confirmation and nine had symptoms relief with hormonal treatment. MRI sensitivity was 83 % (19/23; 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 68, 98) for reader 1 and 78 % (18/23; 95 % CI: 61, 95) for reader 2. Kappa value was 0.86 (95 % CI: 0.47, 1.00). Readers 1 and 2 detected 35 and 36 lesions, respectively, all right-sided and agreed for 32 lesions on the type, location, and signal. Lesions were mostly nodules (23/32, 72 %), predominantly posterior (28/32, 87.5 %) and hyperintense on T1 (20/32, 63 %). MRI was negative for both readers in 2 surgically treated patients with small nodules or isolated diaphragmatic holes.

Conclusion

MRI allows diaphragmatic endometriosis diagnosis with 78 to 83 % sensitivity and excellent interobserver agreement. Key Points • MRI allows the diagnosis of diaphragmatic endometriosis with up to 83 % sensitivity. • Diaphragmatic endometriosis lesions are better depicted on fat-suppressed T1-weighted sequences. • Diaphragmatic lesions, mostly hyperintense nodules, are right-sided and predominantly posterior. • MRI can help in timely diagnosis of diaphragmatic endometriosis. Similar content being viewed by others Abbreviations - CT: - Computed tomography - MRI: - Magnetic resonance imaging

References

Olive DL, Schwartz LB (2003) Endometriosis. N Engl J Med 328:1759–1769 Alifano M, Trisolini R, Cancellieri A, Regnard JF (2006) Thoracic endometriosis: current knowledge. Ann Thorac Surg 81:761–769 Bianconi L, Hummelshoj L, Coccia ME et al (2007) Recognizing endometriosis as a social disease: the european union-encouraged Italian senate approach. Fertil Steril 88:1285–1287 Joseph J, Sahn SA (1996) Thoracic endometriosis syndrome: new observations from an analysis of 110 cases. Am J Med 100:164–170 Nezhat C, Seidman DS, Nezhat F, Nezhat C (1998) Laparoscopic surgical management of diaphragmatic endometriosis. Fertil Steril 69:1048–1055 Redwine DB (2002) Diaphragmatic endometriosis: diagnosis, surgical management, and long-term results of treatment. Fertil Steril 77:288–296 Ceccaroni M, Roviglione G, Giampaolino P et al (2013) Laparoscopic surgical treatment of diaphragmatic endometriosis: a 7-year single-institution retrospective review. Surg Endosc 27:625–632 Scioscia M, Bruni F, Ceccaroni M, Steinkasserer M, Stepniewska A, Minelli L (2011) Distribution of endometriotic lesions in endometriosis stage IV supports the menstrual reflux theory and requires specific preoperative assessment and therapy. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 90:136–139 Alifano M, Jablonski C, Kadiri H et al (2007) Catamenial and noncatamenial, endometriosis-related or nonendometriosis-related pneumothorax referred for surgery. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 176:1048–1053 Rousset-Jablonski C, Alifano M, Plu-Bureau G et al (2011) Catamenial pneumothorax and endometriosis-related pneumothorax: clinical features and risk factors. Hum Reprod 26:2322–2329 Soriano D, Schonman R, Gat I et al (2012) Thoracic endometriosis syndrome is strongly associated with severe pelvic endometriosis and infertility. J Minim Invasive Gynecol 19:742–748 Sampson JA (1927) Peritoneal endometriosis due to the menstrual dissemination of endometrial tissue into the peritoneal cavity. Am J Obstet Gynecol 14:422–469 Meyers MA (1973) Distribution of intra-abdominal malignant seeding: dependency on dynamics of flow of ascitic fluid. Am J Roentgenol Radium Ther Nucl Med 119:198–206 Vercellini P, Abbiati A, Vigano P et al (2007) Asymmetry in distribution of diaphragmatic endometriotic lesions: evidence in favour of the menstrual reflux theory. Hum Reprod 22:2359–2367 Bricou A, Batt RE, Chapron C (2008) Peritoneal fluid flow influences anatomical distribution of endometriotic lesions: why Sampson seems to be right. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 138:127–134 Alifano M, Cancellieri A, Fornelli A, Trisolini R, Boaron M (2004) Endometriosis-related pneumothorax: clinicopathologic observations from a newly diagnosed case. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 127:1219–1221 Jablonski C, Alifano M, Regnard JF, Gompel A (2009) Pneumoperitoneum associated with catamenial pneumothorax in women with thoracic endometriosis. Fertil Steril 91(930):e19–e22 Honore GM (1999) Extrapelvic endometriosis. Clin Obstet Gynecol 42(3):699–711 Arruda MS, Petta CA, Abrao MS, Benetti-Pinto CL (2003) Time elapsed from onset of symptoms to diagnosis of endometriosis in a cohort study of Brazilian women. Hum Reprod 18:756–759 Freeston JE, Green MJ, King DG, Iveson JM (2006) Chronic shoulder pain and diaphragmatic endometriosis. Rheumatology (Oxford) 45:1533 Posniak HV, Keshavarzian A, Jabamoni R (1990) Diaphragmatic endometriosis: CT and MR findings. Gastrointest Radiol 15:349–351 Nason LK, Walker CM, McNeeley MF, Burivong W, Fligner CL, Godwin JD (2012) Imaging of the diaphragm: anatomy and function. Radiographics 32:E51–E70 Bobbio A, Carbognani P, Ampollini L, Rusca M (2007) Diaphragmatic laceration, partial liver herniation and catamenial pneumothorax. Asian Cardiovasc Thorac Ann 15:249–251 Cohen J (1968) Weighted kappa: nominal scale agreement with provision for scaled disagreement or partial credit. Psychol Bull 70:213–220 Rousset P, Rousset-Jablonski C, Alifano M, Mansuet-Lupo A, Buy JN, Revel MP (2014) Thoracic endometriosis syndrome: CT and MRI features. Clin Radiol 69:323–330 Ascher SM, Agrawal R, Bis KG et al (1995) Endometriosis: appearance and detection with conventional and contrast-enhanced fat-suppressed spin-echo techniques. J Magn Reson Imaging 5:251–257 Bazot M, Gasner A, Lafont C, Ballester M, Darai E (2011) Deep pelvic endometriosis: limited additional diagnostic value of postcontrast in comparison with conventional MR images. Eur J Radiol 80:e331–e339 Nezhat C, Main J, Paka C, Nezhat A, Beygui RE (2014) Multidisciplinary treatment for thoracic and abdominopelvic endometriosis. Jsls 18(3) Nezhat C, Nicoll LM, Bhagan L et al (2009) Endometriosis of the diaphragm: four cases treated with a combination of laparoscopy and thoracoscopy. J Minim Invasive Gynecol 16:573–580 Ciriaco P, Negri G, Libretti L et al (2009) Surgical treatment of catamenial pneumothorax: a single centre experience. Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg 8:349–352 Fedele L, Bianchi S, Zanconato G, Berlanda N, Borruto F, Frontino G (2005) Tailoring radicality in demolitive surgery for deeply infiltrating endometriosis. Am J Obstet Gynecol 193:114–117 Garry R, Clayton R, Hawe J (2000) The effect of endometriosis and its radical laparoscopic excision on quality of life indicators. BJOG 107:44–54 Sibiude J, Santulli P, Marcellin L, Borghese B, Dousset B, Chapron C (2014) Association of history of surgery for endometriosis with severity of deeply infiltrating endometriosis. Obstet Gynecol 124:709–717 Kinkel K, Frei KA, Balleyguier C, Chapron C (2006) Diagnosis of endometriosis with imaging: a review. Eur Radiol 16:285–298 Acknowledgments The scientific guarantor of this publication is Pascal Rousset. The authors of this manuscript declare no relationships with any companies, whose products or services may be related to the subject matter of the article. The authors state that this work has not received any funding. One of the authors has significant statistical expertise. Joël Coste, is one of the authors, and is from Biostatistics and Epidemiology department, Groupe Hospitalier Cochin Hôtel-Dieu, 27 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques, 75014 Paris, France Institutional Review Board approval was obtained. Written informed consent was waived by the Institutional Review Board. Methodology: retrospective, diagnostic study / observational, multicenter study. Author information Authors and Affiliations Corresponding author Rights and permissions About this article Cite this article Rousset, P., Gregory, J., Rousset-Jablonski, C. et al. MR diagnosis of diaphragmatic endometriosis. Eur Radiol 26, 3968–3977 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-016-4226-5 Received: Revised: Accepted: Published: Issue date: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-016-4226-5

Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below. Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy (via DOI) is the canonical version.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Ask this paper AI returns verbatim quotes from the full text · source: oa-doi-fallback

Answers must be backed by verbatim quotes from this paper's full text. Hallucinated quotes are dropped automatically; if no verbatim passage answers the question, we say so. How this works

Condition tags

endometriosisthoracic_endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Diaphragm Endometriosis Muscular Diseases Adult Endometriosis Female Hernia, Diaphragmatic Hernia, Diaphragmatic Humans Liver Diseases Liver Diseases Magnetic Resonance Imaging Magnetic Resonance Imaging Middle Aged Muscular Diseases Patient Positioning Retrospective Studies Young Adult

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (36)

Cited by (46)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-07-28T06:14:09.330459+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:21:13.485820+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK