Small hepatocellular carcinoma: Relationship of signal intensity to histopathologic findings and metal content of the tumor and surrounding hepatic parenchyma

PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between the metal content of hepat ocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the signal intensity pattern on magnetic reso nance images. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The signal intensity patterns of 59 HCCs 3 cm in dia meter or smaller were correlated with histologic findings and metal content . RESULTS: HCCs with high signal intensity on T1-weighted images demonstrated more steatosis (P = .035) and higher copper content (P = .008) than did su rrounding hepatic parenchyma. HCCs with high signal intensity on T2-weighte d images demonstrated more clear cells (P = .001) than did surrounding hepa tic parenchyma. The higher signal intensities on T1-weighted and T2-weighte d images were related to a higher and a lower degree of histologic differen tiation, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that the contrast-to-no ise ratio between the HCC and surrounding hepatic parenchyma was affected b y intratumoral copper content (P = .0338), zinc content of surrounding hepa tic parenchyma (P = .0379), and the degree of histologic differentiation on T1-weighted (P = .0031) and T2-weighted (P = .0062) images. CONCLUSION: The signal intensity of HCC on T1-weighted images is related to the degree of histologic differentiation, intratumoral copper content, and zinc content of surrounding hepatic parenchyma, whereas the signal intensi ty on T2-weighted images is related to the degree of histologic differentia tion.