Fat-suppressed T2-weighted MRI of the liver: Comparison of respiratory-triggered fast spin-echo, breath-hold single-shot fast spin-echo, and breath-hold fast-recovery fast spin-echo sequences

• Published in: Journal of magnetic resonance imaging Vol. 14; no. 4; pp. 439 - 449
• Main Authors: Katayama, Motoyuki, Masui, Takayuki, Kobayashi, Shigeru, Ito, Tatsuhiko, Takahashi, Mamoru, Sakahara, Harumi, Nozaki, Atsushi, Kabasawa, Hiroyuki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.10.2001
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; comparative studies; fat suppression; Female; Humans; Liver Diseases - diagnosis; liver neoplasms; Lung Neoplasms - diagnosis; magnetic resonance; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; magnetic resonance, comparative studies; magnetic resonance, liver neoplasms; magnetic resonance, pulse sequences; Male; Middle Aged; Prospective Studies; pulse sequences; receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC); Respiration; ROC Curve
• ISSN: 1053-1807; 1522-2586
• DOI: 10.1002/jmri.1205

The purpose of our study was to compare the value of respiratory‐triggered fast spin‐echo, breath‐hold single‐shot fast spin‐echo, and breath‐hold fast‐recovery fast spin‐echo sequences in detecting hepatic lesions. Fat‐suppressed T2‐weighted magnetic resonance (MR) images obtained with the three sequences in 36 patients with 138 lesions and nine patients without lesions were prospectively analyzed. Quantitative and qualitative analyses, including receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses, were performed. The mean lesion‐to‐liver contrast‐to‐noise ratio (CNR) for hepatic lesions was highest with the respiratory‐triggered fast spin‐echo sequence. On the basis of receiver‐operating characteristic analyses, tumor detection rates were higher with the breath‐hold fast‐recovery fast spin‐echo sequence (Az = 0.94) than with the respiratory‐triggered fast spin‐echo sequence (AZ = 0.80, P < 0.0001) or the single‐shot fast spin‐echo sequence (Az = 0.77, P < 0.0001). The image quality with the breath‐hold fast‐recovery fast spin‐echo sequence was acceptable in all patients. The breath‐hold fast‐recovery fast spin‐echo sequence provided the highest tumor detection in a short imaging time, although the mean lesion‐to‐liver CNRs were inferior to those of the respiratory‐triggered fast spin‐echo and the breath‐hold single‐shot fast spin‐echo sequences. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2001;14:439–449. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.