Enhancement of abdominal organs on hepatic arterial phase: quantitative comparison between 1.5- and 3.0-T magnetic resonance imaging.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the extent of enhancement of abdominal organs as shown on subphases of hepatic arterial phase quantitatively between 1.5- and 3.0-T MRI among patients with various abdominal conditions.


METHODS
A total of 126 patients, of whom 68 were women (age range, 3-82 years; mean age, 48 years) and 58 were men (age range, 6-73 years; mean age, 50 years), were included in the study. Of 126 patients, 98 were scanned at 1.5 T and 28 were scanned at 3.0 T. The presence of one of three predefined subphases of hepatic arterial phase was determined on early post-gadolinium sequence in each patient by two reviewers in consensus. Extent of enhancement of the kidney, pancreas, spleen and liver on these subphases was determined quantitatively by measuring the signal intensities. Mann Whitney-Wilcoxon test was used to compare the contrast enhancement of organs on each subphase between 1.5- and 3.0-T MRI.


RESULTS
The kidney, spleen, pancreas and liver demonstrated 1.79- to 2.45-, 1.65- to 1.97-, 1.66- to 1.8- and 1.1- to 2.02-fold higher enhancement on the subphases of hepatic arterial phase at 3.0 T compared to 1.5 T, respectively. The differences in contrast enhancement were significant for the kidney, pancreas and spleen on all subphases between 1.5 and 3.0 T.


CONCLUSIONS
The relative enhancement of the kidney, spleen and pancreas is consistently and significantly higher at 3.0 T than at 1.5 T in matched subphases of hepatic arterial enhancement.
Goncalves Neto
Jose A
JA
Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Altun
Ersan
E
Elazzazi
Mohamed
M
Vaidean
Georgeta D
GD
Chaney
Matthew
M
Semelka
Richard C
RC
D000005:Abdomen / Q000473:pathology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D002648:Child; D003287:Contrast Media; D005260:Female; D005682:Gadolinium; D006499:Hepatic Artery / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014781:Viscera / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult
D003287:Contrast Media; D005682:Gadolinium