[MRI with supermagnetic iron particles versus double-spiral CT in identification of malignant liver lesions]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of MRI with superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) and double-spiral CT in the detection of liver metastases and hepatocellular carcinoma.

38 patients with a total of 144 malignant hepatic lesions underwent CT and MRI. A panel of experts defined the gold standard. Five experienced judges performed independently blinded evaluation of the number of detectable lesions. Multifactorial variance analysis was used to determine the statistical significance.

SPIO-MRI shows the highest rate of detection and is significantly superior to native MRI and native CT. The highest rate of detection by CT is shown in the portal-venous phase of contrast; nevertheless, the rate is significantly inferior to SPIO-MRI. In general, the native phases of CT and MRI are significantly inferior to the contrast phases of both. SPIO-MRI shows a higher rate of false positive findings.

The time-consuming and cost-intensive SPIO-MRI significantly increases the rate of detectability for malignant liver lesions compared with double-spiral CT but it also increases the rate of false positive findings.