• Taku Tajima, Masaaki Akahane, Hidemasa Takao, Hiroyuki Akai, Shigeru Kiryu, Hiroshi Imamura, Yasushi Watanabe, Norihiro Kokudo, and Kuni Ohtomo.
• Department of Radiology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan. ttajima-tky@umin.ac.jp
• Jpn J Radiol. 2012 Oct 1; 30 (8): 648-58.

PurposeWe compared diagnostic ability for detecting hepatic metastases between gadolinium ethoxy benzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA)-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) on a 1.5-T system, and determined whether DWI is necessary in Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI for diagnosing colorectal liver metastases.Materials And MethodsWe assessed 29 consecutive prospectively enrolled patients with suspected metachronous colorectal liver metastases; all patients underwent surgery and had preoperative Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI. Overall detection rate, sensitivity for detecting metastases and benign lesions, positive predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy (Az value) were compared among three image sets [unenhanced MRI (DWI set), Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI excluding DWI (EOB set), and combined set].ResultsGd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI yielded better overall detection rate (77.8-79.0 %) and sensitivity (87.1-89.4 %) for detecting metastases than the DWI set (55.9 % and 64.7 %, respectively) for one observer (P < 0.001). No statistically significant difference was seen between the EOB and combined sets, although several metastases were newly detected on additional DWI.ConclusionsGd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI yielded a better overall detection rate and higher sensitivity for detecting metastases compared with unenhanced MRI. Additional DWI may be able to reduce oversight of lesions in Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced 1.5-T MRI for detecting colorectal liver metastases.

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