Gadolinium-DOTA enhanced fast imaging of liver tumors at 1.5 T

Twenty patients [15 men, 5 women, 19-71 years old (mean 52 years)] highly suspected of having tumoral liver pathology were prospectively studied with motion compensated T2-weighted spin echo (SE) [repetition time (TR) 2,200 ms, echo time (TE) 90 ms] and Gd-DOTA enhanced gradient echo fast low angle shot [TR 60 ms, TE 10 ms, angle 30 degrees) sequences. The final diagnoses were hemangioma (five), hepatocellular carcinoma (four), focal nodular hyperplasia (one), adenoma (one), metastasis (two), abscess (two), echinococcal cyst (one), tumor of unknown origin (three), cirrhosis (one). Contrast enhanced images were obtained during the early vascular phases after intravenous bolus injection of Gd-DOTA at a dose of 0.1 mmol/kg (0.2 ml/kg). After Gd-DOTA, positive contrast enhancement was seen in 11 cases, negative enhancement in 4, and nonenhancement in 6. Contrast patterns were similar to contrast enhanced CT. In terms of visibility of lesions, the unenhanced motion-compensated T2 SE sequences were superior to the nonenhanced gradient echo sequences in 12 patients and equal in 8. After gadolinium enhancement, T2-weighted SE images were superior to the postcontrast gradient echo images in eight cases, equal in eight and inferior in four cases.