Abstract
PURPOSE: To investigate whether ferumoxides-enhanced double-echo T2-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging alone can allow differentiation of metastases from benign lesions in the noncirrhotic liver. MATERIALS AND METHODS: At retrospective review of files and images, 60 lesions (22 metastases, 20 hemanglomas, and 18 cysts) were identified in 42 patients. All fast spin-echo T2-weighted MR images obtained before and after administration of ferumoxides with short (80-90 msec) and long (180-250 msec) echo times (TEs) were acquired with a 1.5-T system. Differences in lesion-to-liver signal intensity ratio between images obtained with long and short TEs were calculated. Data from all 60 lesions were entered into a receiver operating characteristic analysis. Three independent readers scored their observations of each lesion with a confidence level of 1-5. The diagnostic accuracy of each analysis methodwas determined by calculating the area under each reader-specific receiver operating characteristic curve. Interobserver agreement was calculated with the use of chance-corrected K statistics. Relative sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of characterizing benign lesions with each method were calculated. RESULTS: Markedly low signal intensity and lesion-to-liver ratio on ferumoxides-enhanced images were observed with hemangioma. The difference of lesion-to-liver ratio between long and short TEs on ferumoxides-enhanced images was significantly different from that of unenhanced images and that of metastases or cysts. Inter-observer agreement was good to excellent. Ferumoxides-enhanced images (with short and long TEs) showed significantly higher diagnostic accuracy than that of unenhanced images (with short or short and long TEs). Ferumoxides-enhanced images showed similar sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy when all images were reviewed together. CONCLUSION: Ferumoxides-enhanced T2-weighted MR images appear useful in differentiating metastases from benign (nonsolid) lesions in the liver.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 151-158 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Radiology |
Volume | 225 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 1 2002 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Contrast enhancement
- Cysts
- Hemangioma
- Liver
- Liver neoplasms
- Magnetic resonance (MR)
- Metastases
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging