MR characterization of hepatic lesions by t-null inversion recovery sequence

Tissue characterization of focal hepatic lesions was performed employing an inversion recovery sequence with short repetition time and short inversion time (TI) values. Different and specific TI values, correlated to the in vivo measured T1 relaxation times, were used to null the signal intensity of each type of lesion. In 40 patients studied, we observed the nulling effect of normal liver in 10 of 10 cases with a TI of 136 ms, of metastases in 7 of 8 cases with a TI of 175 ms, of hemangiomas in 15 of 16 cases with a TI of 200 ms, and of cysts in 6 of 7 cases with a TI of 235 ms. A quantitative analysis of the nulled signal was performed by measuring the signal/noise values. A further qualitative and quantitative characterization was carried out by evaluating the signal intensity of hepatic lesions at the null point of normal liver. The method provided the possibility of discriminating different focal lesions with specificity values of 83-94%, according to the type of lesion.