Background: To compare fat-suppressed three-dimensional gradient echo (3D-G
RE) and two-dimensional gradient echo (2D-GRE) techniques for hepatic magne
tic resonance imaging.
Methods: For 107 patients with suspected focal hepatic lesions, unenhanced
2D-GRE multislice in-phase and opposed-phase images and 3D-GRE images were
obtained. Two radiologists independently and in random order reviewed the i
mages. Quantitative analysis compared contrast-to-noise ratio (C/N) of live
r masses and of the liver to spleen and signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of the
liver. Subjective grading of lesion conspicuity, confidence for lesion dete
ction, artifacts, and overall image quality were also evaluated.
Results: Conspicuity and confidence for focal lesions was statistically sig
nificantly higher on 3D-GRE than on 2D-GRE images, Liver-to-spleen C/N was
higher on 3D-GRE images than on in-phase and opposed-phase 2D-GRE images (p
< 0.01). Liver S/N was higher on in-phase 2D-GRE images than on 3D-GRE and
opposed-phase 2D-GRE images (p < 0.001). Lesion-to-liver C/N was higher on
3D-GRE images than on 2D-GRE images for nonsolid lesions (p < 0.05), but t
here was no significant difference for solid lesions. Motion and pulsation
artifacts were significantly fewer on 3D-GRE images, but graininess and sha
ding were significantly higher. Overall image quality was not significantly
different for the three sequences.
Conclusion: Fat-suppressed 3D-GRE sequences can afford comparable or better
image quality than 2D-GRE images and may have the potential to detect more
focal hepatic lesions.