# PI-QUAL (prostate MRI image quality score)

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/pi-qual/  
OnCo record `pi-qual` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

PI-QUAL is a 1 to 5 score for how good the pictures in a prostate MRI are, because a poor-quality scan can miss cancer whatever PI-RADS score it is given.

## Summary

The PRECISION trial showed MRI-targeted biopsy finds more prostate cancer than standard biopsy, but that depends on scan quality. Giganti and colleagues (European Urology Oncology 2020) introduced the Prostate Imaging Quality score: 1 means no sequence is of diagnostic quality and 5 that every sequence is independently of optimal quality. In 58 PRECISION scans read by two radiologists, 95% were of sufficient diagnostic quality (PI-QUAL 3 or more) and 60% of good or optimal quality (4 or more); the contrast-enhanced sequence was the weakest. The authors called for further validation.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Also known as: PI-QUAL; Prostate Imaging Quality

## Sources

- Giganti et al., Prostate Imaging Quality (PI-QUAL): a new quality control scoring system for multiparametric MRI of the prostate from the PRECISION trial (Eur Urol Oncol 2020): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euo.2020.06.007

## Connected records

- terms: [PI-RADS (Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System)](https://onco.cc/terms/pi-rads/), [PRECISE score (prostate MRI on active surveillance)](https://onco.cc/terms/precise-recommendations/)
- cancers: [Prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/prostate/)
- technologies: [Multiparametric prostate MRI (PI-RADS)](https://onco.cc/technologies/mp-mri/)

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