Liver metastases: detection by phase-contrast MR imaging.
Forty patients with biopsy-proved metastatic liver cancers were studied by magnetic resonance (MR) imaging using one or more conventional (in-phase) pulse sequences and a corresponding phase-contrast (opposed-phase) pulse sequence. Pulse-sequence performance was quantitated by measuring signal-difference-to-noise (SD/N) ratios between cancerous tissue and liver. The SD/N performance of T2-weighted spin-echo (SE) pulse sequences improved when used with the phase-contrast technique. SE 2,000/30 opposed-phase images showed improved (P less than .001) SD/N in 72% of patients over in-phase images. The SD/N of T1-weighted SE or inversion recovery pulse sequences deteriorated when used with the phase-contrast technique. Changes in measured SD/N correlated well with image appearance and actual lesion detectability in individual cases. Phase-contrast imaging should be employed routinely when T2-weighted SE pulse sequences are relied on to detect liver cancer.
D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods; D008433:Mathematics; D013154:Spleen / Q000473:pathology