LIVER METASTASES - SAFETY AND EFFICACY OF DETECTION WITH SUPERPARAMAGNETIC IRON-OXIDE IN MR-IMAGING

PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinical and biologic safety of superparamagn etic iron oxide (SPIO) as a contrast agent in magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and to assess its efficacy in the detection of liver metastase s. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty adults with liver metastases underwen t MR imaging at 1.5 T before and 1 hour after infusion of SPIO. Four s pin-echo (SE) sequences and One gradient-echo (GRE) sequence were used . RESULTS: There were no adverse reactions. Alterations in serum prote in, serum iron, transferrin, and ferritin levels and transferrin satur ation coefficient were statistically significant. The mean tumor-to-li ver contrast-to-noise ratio (C/N) increased markedly with all sequence s. The best postcontrast tumor-to-liver contrast was obtained with the GRE sequence (repetition time msec/echo time msec = 300/15). The mean number of apparent lesions detected after administration of SPIO incr eased by 12 with the proton-density-weighted SE sequences (800/30 and 2,500/30), four with the T2-weighted SE sequence (2,500/90), and seven with the GRE Sequence (300/15). CONCLUSION: SPIO is safe, increases t umor-to-liver C/Ns with some sequences, and improves the detection of liver metastases.