Liver lesion detection: comparison between excitation-spoiling fat suppression and regular spin-echo at 1.5T

The role of excitation-spoiling fat suppression (fatsat) imaging in the detection of liver lesions was assessed comparing short TR/TE and lont TR/TE spin-echo (SE) sequences with and without excitation-spoiling fat suppression in 25 patients at 1.5T. The study included patients with liver metastases (n = 21), primary liver cancer (n = 3), and hepatic adenoma (n = 1). Liver lesion detection and lesion-liver signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) were determined for the various imaging sequences in a prospective fashion. Liver lesion-liver SNR were highest for long TR/TE (2000-2500/70-80) fatsat images (12.7 +/- 4.8) compared to long TR/TE regular SE (2000-2500/70-80) images (8.8 +/- 5.6) [(p = ns) (not significant)], short TR/TE (200-400/15-20) fatsat images (-6.2 +/- 4.8) (p = 0.05), and short TR/TE regular SE images (-4.9 +/- 3.2) (p < 0.01). Lesion detection was greatest for long TR/TE fatsat (86) followed by long TR/TE regular SE (78) (p = 0.05), short TR/TE fatsat (65) (p < 0.01), and short TR/TE regular SE (60) (p < 0.01). The results of this study suggest that excitation-spoiling fat suppression may improve liver lesion detection and conspicuity.