Comparison of gadolinium-EOB-DTPA-enhanced and diffusion-weighted liver MRI for detection of small hepatic metastases.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the accuracy of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA)-enhanced MRI with that of diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) in the detection of small hepatic metastases (2 cm or smaller).


METHODS
Forty-five patients underwent abdominal MRI at 3 T, including T1-weighted imaging (T1WI), T2-weighted imaging (T2WI), heavily T2WI (HASTE), DWI with a b-value of 500 s/mm(2) and contrast-enhanced MRI with Gd-EOB-DTPA. Two groups were assigned and compared: group A (T1WI, T2WI, HASTE and contrast-enhanced study with Gd-EOB-DTPA), and group B (T1WI, T2WI, HASTE and DWI). Two observers independently interpreted the images obtained in a random order. For all hepatic metastases, the diagnostic performance using each imaging set was evaluated by receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.


RESULTS
A total of 51 hepatic metastases were confirmed. The area under the ROC curve (Az) of group A was larger than that of group B, and the difference in the mean Az values between the two image sets was statistically significant, whereas, there were three metastases that lay near thin vessels or among multiple cysts and were better visualised in group B than in group A.


CONCLUSIONS
Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI showed higher accuracy in the detection of small metastases than DWI.
Shimada
Kotaro
K
Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, 54 Kawahara-cho, Shogoin, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8507, Japan. kotaro@kuhp.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Isoda
Hiroyoshi
H
Hirokawa
Yuusuke
Y
Arizono
Shigeki
S
Shibata
Toshiya
T
Togashi
Kaori
K
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003287:Contrast Media; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D005260:Female; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000556:secondary*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D003287:Contrast Media; C073590:gadolinium ethoxybenzyl DTPA; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA