Radiology, Vol 200, 459-464, Copyright © 1996 by Radiological Society of North America

ARTICLES

Liver masses: replacement of conventional T2-weighted spin-echo MR imaging with breath-hold MR imaging

J Gaa, H Hatabu, RL Jenkins, JP Finn and RR Edelman
Department of Radiology, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, MA 02215, USA.

PURPOSE: To evaluate breath-hold magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with single-shot and multishot T2-weighted fast spin-echo (SE) and inversion- recovery (IR) SE echo-planar (EP) SE (IR-SE-EP) sequences compared with conventional T2-weighted SE imaging for detection of liver masses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Imaging with all sequences was performed in 32 patients on a 1.5-T whole-body system. Images were compared on the basis of lesion-to-liver contrast-to-noise ratio (C/N), lesion conspicuity, and image quality. Image analysis was performed by two experienced radiologists in consensus. RESULTS: Lesion-to-liver C/Ns were highest on fat-suppressed-half-Fourier-single-shot-fast-SE images. For solid lesions, the lesion-to-liver C/Ns were highest with IR-fast- SE, which was significantly better (P < .05) than IR-SE-EP and conventional SE techniques and also produced the best image quality. Sensitivity with IR-fast-SE was 96%; with fat-suppressed-half-Fourier- single-shot-fast-SE, 92%; with fat-suppressed-fast-SE, 89%; with IR-SE- EP, 83%; and with conventional SE, 78%. CONCLUSION: T2-weighted breath- hold imaging, particularly IR-fast-SE imaging, was more sensitive for hepatic masses than conventional SE imaging, with a substantial reduction in acquisition time. Half-Fourier-single-shot-fast-SE imaging was especially useful in patients who were unable to hold their breath.

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