MR images of mycobacterial infection

With the progress of imaging technologies such as CT and MR imaging, we can obtain various informations from CT and MR images. Especially, thin-section high resolution CT (HRCT) provides very useful information for the diagnosis of mycobacterial infection and other diseases of pulmonary parenchyma. Advantages of MR images over HRCT are higher tissue contrast and multidirection capability. The T2-weighted images and Gd-DTPA enhanced T1-weighted images accurately reflect pathologic structure of the lesion. Therefore, MR images can add many useful findings to CT on the selected cases which are differentiation of tubercloma from lung cancer, chronic empyema from mesothelioma, aspergiloma from lung cancer and lymphadenopathy from lymph node metastasis. We describe the usefulness of MR images for diagnosing mycobacterial infection and its differentiation from other pulmonary diseases.