• P Soyer, S Le Normand, S C de Givry, C Gueye, E Somveille, and A Scherrer.
• Department of Radiology, Hopital Foch, France.
• AJR Am J Roentgenol. 1996 Mar 1; 166 (3): 593-7.

ObjectiveThe goal of our study was to compare a T2-weighted breath-hold fast spin-echo (BHSE) technique with T2-weighted non-breath-hold fast spin-echo techniques for imaging the liver.Subjects And MethodsThirty-three patients with hepatic lesions had T2-weighted BHSE images obtained in 22 sec and conventional T2-weighted non-breath-hold fast spin-echo images obtained in 3 min 12 sec with and without fat suppression. Images were analyzed quantitatively by measuring the lesion-liver contrast, spleen-liver contrast, and signal-to-noise ratios of lesions and qualitatively by evaluating the sharpness of hepatic contours, visibility of intrahepatic vessels and other segmental landmarks, and presence of artifacts.ResultsQuantitatively, lesion-liver contrast, spleen-liver contrast, and signal-to-noise ratios obtained with the BHSE technique were inferior to those obtained with fast spin-echo techniques with and without fat suppression (11.2 +/- 7.1 versus 15.4 +/- 10.6 and 14.5 +/- 9.8, p < .001; 5.3 +/- 3.7 versus 8.7 +/- 3.5 and 7.0 +/- 3.8, p < .001; 16.2 +/- 8.2 versus 20.1 +/- 10.9 and 19.7 +/- 9.5, p < .01, respectively; Student's t test). Qualitatively, image artifacts and intrahepatic vessel depiction on BHSE images were similar to those obtained with the fast spin-echo techniques. The BHSE technique was superior to fat-suppressed fast spin-echo technique for showing hepatic contours (p < .01; Wilcoxon signed-rank test).ConclusionThe BHSE technique is quantitatively inferior to non-breath-hold fast spin-echo techniques. However, further studies with a surgical standard of reference are needed to compare the three techniques in terms of sensitivity.

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