Tumor-liver contrast and subjective tumor conspicuity of respiratory-triggered T2-weighted fast spin-echo sequence compared with T2*-weighted gradient recalled-echo sequence for ferucarbotran-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of hepatic malignant tumors

Purpose To compare respiratory-triggered T2-weighted fast spin-echo (RTT2W-FSE) and gradient T2*-weighted recalled-echo (T2*W-GRE) images for visualization of malignant hepatic tumors using ferucarbotran-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Materials and Methods Ferucarbotran-enhanced RTT2W-FSE and breath-hold long-TE 2D-fast spoiled gradient recalled acquisition in the steady state (FSPGR) images as T2*W-GRE were used to evaluate 128 malignant hepatic tumors (77 metastases, 37 hepatocellular carcinomas, 14 other) in 62 patients. Tumor-to-liver contrast (TLC) was quantitatively compared using the paired Student's t-test, and the score of lesion conspicuity was qualitatively compared using Wilcoxon's signed rank test. Results The mean TLC of RTT2W-FSE was significantly higher than that of FSPGR (1.10 ± 0.82 vs. 2.54 ± 1.42) in all malignant tumors. The score of lesion conspicuity of RTT2W-FSE was significantly higher than that of FSPGR (4.84 ± 0.52 vs. 4.52 ± 0.99) in all malignant tumors. Conclusion For ferucarbotran-enhanced MR imaging, compared to FSPGR images, RTT2W-FSE images provide greater TLC and subjective conspicuity for malignant tumors. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2008;27:1322–1326. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.