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Hypervascular malignant liver lesions: comparison of various MR imaging pulse sequences and dynamic CT
R E Larson1, R C Semelka, A S Bagley
1Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27514.
Purpose:
To compare the appearance of hypervascular liver lesions on gadolinium-enhanced fast low-angle shot (FLASH) imaging with T2-weighted fat-suppressed spin-echo imaging, dynamic nonequilibrium-phase FLASH imaging, and dynamic nonequilibrium-phase iodine-enhanced computed tomography (CT) and to characterize the appearance of lesions on serial postgadolinium FLASH images.
Materials And Methods:
Twenty-nine patients with hypervascular malignant liver lesions were examined with dynamic contrast-enhanced CT and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging within a 1-month interval. MR sequences included T2-weighted fat-suppression, precontrast FLASH, and postgadolinium FLASH at 1 second (sinusoid phase), 45 seconds (nonequilibrium phase), and 10 minutes.
Results:
More than five lesions were detected in 12 patients with CT, 15 patients with T2-weighted fat-suppression imaging, 16 with sinusoid-phase FLASH imaging, and 11 with nonequilibrium-phase FLASH imaging. In six patients, a statistically significant (P = .03) increase in the number of lesions detected, by category, was observed on sinusoid-phase FLASH images compared with CT images.
Conclusion:
Sinusoid-phase FLASH imaging is superior to nonequilibrium-phase imaging with MR or CT for the demonstration of hypervascular malignant lesions.