title: Liver tumor characterization: comparison between liver-specific gadoxetic acid disodium-enhanced MRI and biphasic CT--a multicenter trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In our multi center trial we compared the potentials of biphasic contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) and a novel tissue-specific magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent gadoxetic acid disodium in liver lesion characterization.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 176 patients with 252 liver lesions were analyzed. There were 104 malignant and 148 benign lesions. High-field strength (1.0 T or 1.5 T) MR systems with T1-and T2-weighted sequences were used with and without fat suppression. After gadoxetic acid disodium injection, dynamic imaging and hepatocyte phase MR imaging were performed. Biphasic with 150 mg I/kg of body weight (100-200 mL) spiral CT was also performed. Image reading consisted of on-site (by study investigators) and fully blinded off-site (by E.S.P; C.R; and A.S) evaluations. The classification (benign or malignant) and characterization (lesion type) outcomes of both techniques were assessed. All imaging results were verified against a standard of reference.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both on-site and off-site evaluations demonstrated increases in the lesion classification accuracy with gadoxetic acid disodium-enhanced MRI when compared with spiral CT. This improvement was also shown for characterization. Gadoxetic acid disodium was well tolerated.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Gadoxetic acid disodium offers a safe and diagnostically powerful tool for the evaluation of patients with focal liver lesions with a reliable assessment of lesion classification and characterization.
authors.affiliation: Jorvi Hospital, Department of Radiology, Espoo, Finland. juha.halavaara@hus.fi
authors.forename: Juha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Halavaara
authors.forename: Josy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Breuer
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ayuso
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Balzer
authors.forename: Marie-France
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Bellin
authors.forename: Lennart
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Blomqvist
authors.forename: Rick
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Grazioli
authors.forename: Renate
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hammerstingl
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Huppertz
authors.forename: Gregor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Krause
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Laghi
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Leen
authors.forename: Luciano
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lupatelli
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Marsili
authors.forename: Julio
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: E Scott
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Pretorius
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Reinhold
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stiskal
authors.forename: Alan H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Stolpen
mesh_terms: D019786:Gadolinium DTPA; D006801:Humans; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D036542:Tomography, Spiral Computed / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: C073590:gadolinium ethoxybenzyl DTPA; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA