Detection and size of pulmonary lesions: how accurate is MRI? A prospective comparison of CT and MRI

BackgroundAlthough CT is the modality of choice for morphological lung imaging, an increasing proportion of chest imaging is performed by MRI due to the utilization of whole-body MRI. Therefore, the diagnostic performance of MRI in reliably detecting pulmonary lesions should be established.PurposeTo investigate the detection rate of pulmonary lesions by MRI that can be expected in a clinical setting and to assess the accuracy of lesion measurement by MRI compared to CT.Material and MethodsTwenty-eight patients (median age 66 years) with indication for CT imaging due to suspected thoracic malignancy were prospectively included. Chest MRI performed on the same day as CT, comprised unenhanced TrueFisp, ecg-gated T2-weighted HASTE, T1-weighted VIBE, and contrast-enhanced T1-weighted, fat-saturated VIBE sequences. MR sequences were evaluated for lesion detection by two readers independently and measurement of lesion size was performed. MR findings were correlated with CT.ResultsOne hundred and eight pulmonary ...