NEW MR CONTRAST AGENTS IN THE DIAGNOSIS O F LIVER-LESIONS - PRELIMINARY CLINICAL-EXPERIENCE WITH THE HEPATIS BILIARY EOVIST (GADOLINIUM-EOB-DTPA) AND THE RES-SPECIFIC RESOVIST (SH-U-555-A)

The purpose of this work is to describe our initial clinical experienc e (in 66 patients) with Resovist and Eovist, two new liver-specific MR contrast agents, We focus our report on safety aspects, dose finding, and optimization of technical parameters, Both contrast agents were w ell tolerated and improved the detectability of focal liver lesions, W ith Resovist, postcontrast MRI may be started as early as 10 min follo wing injection. The dose of 8 mu mol Fe/kg bodyweight was sufficient t o achieve diagnostic tumor-liver contrast levels, Since Eovist can als o be administered as a bolus, dynamic enhancement patterns may be stud ied for tumor characterization as well, Breath-hold T1-weighted FLASH images were superior to other T1-weighted techniques with and without fat saturation.