FOCAL LIVER-LESIONS - FAST T2-WEIGHTED MR-IMAGING WITH HALF-FOURIER RAPID ACQUISITION WITH RELAXATION ENHANCEMENT

PURPOSE: To compare the clinical usefulness of the half-Fourier rapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement (RARE) technique at T2-weighte d magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of focal liver lesions with that of multishot RARE MR imaging and contrast material-enhanced helical compu ted tomography (CT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Half-Fourier RARE and mult ishot RARE imaging and helical CT were performed in 48 patients with 1 02 focal liver lesions and in three patients with diffuse metastatic l iver disease. Images were compared qualitatively and quantitatively fo r image quality, lesion conspicuity, and ability to help differentiate solid lesions from hemangiomas. RESULTS: All half-Fourier RARE images were free of respiratory artifact. In the 48 patients with 102 focal lesions, CT, half-Fourier RARE, and multishot RARE images depicted 101 , 99, and 90 lesions (99%, 97%, and 88%), respectively. CT failed to d epict focal lesions in one patient with diffuse metastatic liver disea se. All techniques had high accuracy for distinction of hemangiomas fr om solid masses (areas under the receiver operating characteristic cur ves were between 0.96 and 0.99). CONCLUSION: Half-Fourier RARE MR imag ing is a rapid and accurate technique for detection and characterizati on of focal liver lesions.