Y. Okada et al., BREATH-HOLD T2-WEIGHTED MRI OF HEPATIC-TUMORS - VALUE OF ECHO-PLANAR IMAGING WITH DIFFUSION-SENSITIZING GRADIENT, Journal of computer assisted tomography, 22(3), 1998, pp. 364-371
Purpose: The purpose of our study was to evaluate the efficacy of echo
planar imaging (EPI) as a breath-holding T2-weighted technique for im
aging focal hepatic lesions. Method: Forty-eight patients with focal h
epatic lesions (9 metastases, 21 hepatocellular carcinomas, 1 cholangi
ocarcinoma, 16 hemangiomas, and 2 cysts) underwent single shot EPI wit
h and without a small diffusion-sensitizing gradient (DSG) (b values =
55 s/mm(2)) at 1.5 T. Comparison was made with breath-holding T2-weig
hted fast SE (FSE) sequences. Results: Lesion-to-Liver signal intensit
y ratio of EPI was significantly better than that of T2-weighted FSE (
p < 0.05) in patients with metastasis. Use of DSG suppressed bright si
gnals from vessels or periportal tissue, resulting in better conspicui
ty of small lesions. EPI with DSG visualized more metastatic deposits
than T2-weighted FSE (p < 0.01). Conclusion: EPI with a small DSG is h
elpful for detection of small hepatic metastases.