Abstract
Purpose
To compare breath-hold fast-recovery fast spin echo (FR-FSE) and non-breath-hold fast
spin echo (FSE) T2-weighted sequences for hepatic lesion conspicuity and image quality
at MR imaging.
Materials and Methods
Fifty-nine patients with known or suspected liver lesions underwent hepatic MR imaging
by using a breath-hold FR-FSE T2-weighted sequence with and without fat suppression
and a non-breath-hold FSE T2-weighted sequence with and without fat suppression. Quantitative
analysis was made with measurements of the signal intensity of the liver, spleen,
background noise, and up to three liver lesions, as well as calculations of the liver
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the liver-to-lesion contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR)
for each sequence. Qualitative analysis was made for image quality and the number
of lesions identified. Statistical analysis was performed by using a single-tailed
paired Student's t test with a 95% confidence interval.
Results
SNR and CNR were significantly higher (P<.05) for FSE with fat suppression than for FR-FSE with fat suppression. No statistically
significant difference was seen in terms of SNR and CNR between non-fat-suppressed
FSE and FR-FSE sequences. Lesion conspicuity, liver edge sharpness, and clarity of
vessels were superior and ghosting was less with the FR-FSE sequences compared with
the FSE sequences.
Conclusion
Breath-hold FR-FSE technique is a reasonable alternative in T2-weighted imaging of
the liver.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Clinical ImagingAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Comparison of breath-hold fast spin-echo and conventional spin-echo pulse sequences for T2-weighted MR imaging of liver lesions.Radiology. 1995; 194: 431-437
- T2-weighted spin-echo MR imaging of the liver: breath-hold fast spin-echo versus non-breath-hold fast spin-echo images with and without fat suppression.AJR Am J Roentgenol. 1996; 166: 593-597
- Phased array breath-hold versus non-breath-hold MR imaging of focal liver lesions: a prospective comparative study.J Magn Reson Imaging. 1997; 7: 292-297
- Focal hepatic lesion detection: comparison of four fat-suppressed T2-weighted MR imaging pulse sequences.Radiology. 1999; 211: 363-371
- Fast recovery fast spin echo evaluation of focal hepatic lesions.Radiology. 2000; 217 (abstr.): 586-587
- Fat-suppressed T2-weighted MRI of the liver: comparison of respiratory-triggered fast spin-echo, breath-hold single-shot fast spin-echo, and breath-hold fast-recovery fast spin-echo sequences.J Magn Reson Imaging. 2001; 14: 439-449
- Liver: T2-weighted MR imaging with breath-hold fast-recovery optimized fast spin-echo compared with breath-hold half-Fourier and non-breath-hold respiratory-triggered fast spin-echo pulse sequences.Radiology. 2002; 223: 853-859
- Utility of breath-hold fast-recovery fast spin-echo t2 versus respiratory-triggered fast spin-echo T2 in clinical hepatic imaging.AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2005; 184: 842-846
Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 28, 2006
Accepted:
February 20,
2006
Received:
January 5,
2006
Identification
Copyright
© 2006 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
