title: Detection of hepatic metastases with MR imaging: spin-echo vs phase-contrast pulse sequences at 0.6 T.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to compare the sensitivity of T1-weighted and T2-weighted spin-echo (SE) pulse sequences with T2-weighted phase-contrast (PC) imaging techniques for the detection of hepatic metastases. Pulse-sequences performance was evaluated in 52 consecutive patients with 88 hepatic metastases who underwent MR imaging at 0.6 T. Lesion-liver contrast-to-noise ratios (CNR) on SE 260/14 (-12.4 +/- 6.7) and PC 2350/60 (+10.8 +/- 4.2) images were significantly (p less than .05) greater than on SE 2350/60 (+ 7.8 +/- 3.9), SE 2350/120 (+8.1 +/- 4.8), SE 2350/180 (+7.9 +/- 4.5), and PC 2350/30 (+4.6 +/- 2.9) images. Sensitivity for detection of 88 individual metastases was comparable on SE 260/14 (78 of 88 patients) and PC 2350/60 (81 of 88 patients) images and was significantly (p less than .05) greater than on in-phase T2-weighted SE images (TE = 60, 70 of 88 patients; TE = 120, 69 of 88 patients; TE = 180, 65 of 88 patients). Histologic analysis of tumor-free liver showed fatty change in 11 of 13 specimens available for pathologic evaluation. In all 11 of those patients, PC images increased tumor-liver contrast in comparison with the in-phase SE images. This analysis suggests that for detection of hepatic metastases at midfield strengths, the T1-weighted, short TR/short TE (SE 260/14) and the T2-weighted, phase-contrast (PC 2350/60) pulse sequences offer comparable performance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rummeny
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saini
authors.forename: D D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Stark
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Weissleder
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Compton
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Ferrucci
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity