title: Small hepatocellular carcinoma versus small cavernous hemangioma: differentiation with MR imaging at 2.0 T.
abstract: Eighteen small hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) and 38 hemangiomas less than 5 cm in diameter were studied with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging at 2.0 T. Relatively T1-weighted spin-echo (SE) 500/30 (repetition time msec/echo time msec) images and proton-density 2,000/30 images showed nonspecific contrast-to-noise ratios (C/Ns) and intensity ratios in HCCs and hemangiomas. On T2-weighted 2,000/60, 90, 120, 150, and 180 images, hemangiomas had significantly greater C/N and intensity ratios than HCCs (P less than .05). The SE 2,000/180 sequence showed the greatest difference in tumor-liver intensity ratios between small HCCs and hemangiomas, followed by the SE 2,000/150 sequence, but there was no statistically significant difference between the two pulse sequences. However, the SE 2,000/180 sequence is limited in the number of sections obtainable for routine clinical liver imaging. The findings indicate that the SE 2,000/60 sequence is optimal for the detection of small HCCs and hemangiomas and that the SE 2,000/150 sequence is optimal for distinguishing small HCCs from hemangiomas at 2.0 T.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, College of Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Korea.
authors.forename: B I
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: C W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006392:Hemangioma, Cavernous / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged