title: Hepatic tumors: quantitative tissue characterization with MR imaging.
abstract: To determine which quantitative methods of image analysis are most suitable for the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant hepatic lesions, the authors analyzed magnetic resonance images obtained at 0.6 T in 42 patients with proved hepatic cavernous hemangioma and 63 patients with various hepatic malignancies. The lesion-liver signal-intensity ratio for images obtained with a repetition time of 2,350 msec and echo time of 180 msec was most helpful in distinguishing hemangiomas from cancer (area under the receiving operator characteristic curve [ROC] = 0.99 +/- 0.005). All 38 lesions with lesion-liver signal-intensity ratios greater than 3.5 were hemangiomas, whereas all 57 hepatic tumors with a ratio less than 2.5 were malignant neoplasms. A specificity of 93% and sensitivity of 89% can be achieved with use of quantitative signal-intensity data only. The authors conclude that in conjunction with heavily T2-weighted pulse sequences, signal-intensity ratios are an important adjunct to morphologic analysis in the differential diagnosis of hepatic neoplasms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 02114.
authors.forename: T K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Egglin
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rummeny
authors.forename: D D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Stark
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wittenberg
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saini
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Ferrucci
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006392:Hemangioma, Cavernous / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000556:secondary; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged