2D Susceptibility-Weighted Imaging Gradient-Echo to Increase the Non-Contrast Diagnostic Sensitivity of Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Journal
Journal of Medical Imaging and Health Informatics
Journal Volume
7
Journal Issue
7
Pages
1602-1606
Date Issued
2017
Author(s)
Abstract
A comparative analysis of diagnostic sensitivity to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) of non-contrast-enhanced conventional liver MRI techniques, 2D susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) gradient-echo, and tri-phase contrast-enhanced MRI is performed to optimize the diagnostic tools. Retrospective study of 80 patients with histopathologically confirmed HCC preoperatively underwent non-contrast-enhanced conventional MRI, 2D SWI, and tri-phase contrast-enhanced MRI. The tumor boundaries, venous vessels, blood products in the tumor, and non-tumor liver parenchyma observed via T2-weighted imaging (WI), T1WI, DWI, ADC mapping, 2D SWI, and tri-phase T1WI were evaluated in consensus by two skilled radiologists. SWI showed significantly better sensitivity than that of non-contrast-enhanced conventional liver MRI imaging (92.5% and 26.3%, respectively), while that of tri-phase contrast-enhanced MRI for diagnosing HCC was remarkably high (96%), and its results were very close to those of liver tumor histopathology analysis. The comparative study has shown that SWI can provide more detailed information than non-contrast-enhanced conventional MRI in the evaluation of tumor boundaries, venous vasculature, blood products, and non-tumor liver parenchyma. Therefore, the non-contrastenhanced conventional MRI should be supplemented with 2D SWI, in order to improve the HCC diagnostic sensitivity up to the level of tri-phase contrast-enhanced MRI.
Type
journal article