Spin-echo echo-planar MR imaging of hepatocellular carcinoma arising from chronic liver damage: comparison with turbo spin-echo imaging.

The aim of this work was to evaluate the value of echo-planar imaging (EPI) in the detection of hepatocellular carcinomas arising in a chronic liver damage to respiratory triggered turbo spin-echo (TSE) imaging. With spin-echo EPI sequences, better lesion-liver contrast was obtained than TSE imaging. Although severe artifact is seen, this imaging produce good contrast, and may be useful as an adjunct to TSE imaging in evaluating patients with chronic liver damage.