Single breath-hold T2-weighted MR imaging of the liver: Value of single-shot fast spin-echo and multishot spin-echo echoplanar imaging

OBJECTIVE. The objective of our study was to evaluate the efficacy of singl e breath-hold T2-weighted MR imaging for detection of focal hepatic lesions . MATERIALS AND METHODS. T2-weighted MR images were retrospectively reviewed from 51 patients with 85 solid and 59 nonsolid lesions using the following four sequences: conventional spin-echo, respiratory-triggered fast spin-ech o, single-shot fast spin-echo, and multishot spin-echo echoplanar imaging. Images were reviewed on a hepatic segment-by-seg ment basis; T2-weighted im ages of a total of 408 hepatic segments were reviewed separately and indepe ndently for solid and nonsolid lesions by four radiologists. Quantitative, qualitative, and receiver operating characteristic analyses were performed. RESULTS. For solid lesions, no significant differences were seen among the lesion-to-liver contrast-to-noise ratios with the four sequences. In terms of solid lesion detection, no significant difference was seen between the d iagnostic accuracy of multishot spin-echo echoplanar (A(z) = 0.90) and resp iratory-triggered fast spin-echo (A(z) = 0.91) imaging, which showed the be st performance of the four sequences. For nonsolid lesion detection, respir atory-triggered fast spin-echo and single-shot fast spin-echo imaging were judged the best (A(z) = 0.94). CONCLUSION. Breath-hold single-shot fast spin-echo and multishot spin-echo echoplanar sequences can be substituted for conventional spin-echo and resp iratory-triggered fast spin-echo T2-weighted sequences.