[Evaluation of breath-hold multislice dynamic MRI of hepatocellular carcinomas]

The breath-hold multislice dynamic study (BMDS) in MRI, which can scan the entire liver during a single breath-holding, was applied to 16 patients with 30 focal lesions of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The BMDS was performed at 20 seconds and 3 minutes after the bolus injection of Gd-DTPA, by gradient echo pulse sequence (FLASH). 29 nodules were detected in the BMDS, showing rapid enhancement on early phase and decline on delayed phase images. The BMDS was more sensitive than conventional MR images. Therefore, the BMDS seems to be useful for the diagnosis of HCC with multiple as well as solitary nodules.