Prospective comparison of high- and low-spatial-resolution dynamic MR imaging with sensitivity encoding (SENSE) for hypervascular hepatocellular carcinoma

The purpose of this study was to prospectively evaluate the efficacy of high-spatial-resolution dynamic MRI using sensitivity encoding (SENSE) in detection of hypervascular hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Thirty-five patients were included in this prospectively planned study, and 25 patients with 31 HCCs were assigned into three groups and underwent the following sequences: group A (n = 11): three-dimensional fast-gradient-echo (3D-FGE) high-spatial-resolution dynamic MRI (HR-MRI) with SENSE; group B (n = 10): 3D-FGE low-spatial-resolution dynamic MRI (LR-MRI) with SENSE; and group C (n = 14): 3D-FGE/LR-MRI without SENSE. For the quantitative analysis, the lesion-to-liver contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) between the liver and HCCs was measured. For the qualitative analysis, overall image quality for each group was evaluated with a five-point scale analysis. The sensitivities for detection of HCCs were evaluated. The overall image quality in group A was significantly greater than both groups B and C (P < 0.01). The sensitivity of lesion detection on HAP was not significantly higher in group A (100%) than group C (69.2%; P > 0.05). In our pilot study on a small number of patients, image quality in HR-MRI with SENSE was superior to LR-MRI. A high detection rate was seen with HR-MRI with SENSE in the patients with hypervascular HCCs.