Journal of computer assisted tomography
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J Comput Assist Tomogr · Nov 2011
Comparative StudyCan the patient with cirrhosis be imaged for hepatocellular carcinoma without gadolinium?: Comparison of combined T2-weighted, T2*-weighted, and diffusion-weighted MRI with gadolinium-enhanced MRI using liver explantation standard.
This study aimed to evaluate a non-gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol including T2-weighted, T2*-weighted, and diffusion-weighted MRI sequences for identifying hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with liver explantation as the reference standard. Also, a stand-alone pre- and dynamic post-gadolinium-enhanced liver MRI data set was interpreted from the available patient data for relative comparison purposes. ⋯ Non-gadolinium-enhanced MRI had a moderate sensitivity for HCC but had a high specificity. Although non-gadolinium-enhanced MRI cannot be recommended as a primary imaging approach for HCC, the results demonstrate the contribution of non-gadolinium-enhanced sequences to imaging of HCC. A non-gadolinium-enhanced MRI protocol may have a diagnostic value when gadolinium cannot be administered.