Usefulness of Gadobenate Dimeglumine - Enhanced Hepatobiliary Phase MR Imaging on Predicting Histological Grade of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To assess the usefulness of gadobenate dimeglumine-enhanced hepatobiliary phase MR imaging for evaluation of histological characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: 57 HCCs histopathologically proved by surgery in 51 patients were retrospectively evaluated. All patients underwent gadobenate dimeglumine-enhanced MR imaging prior to surgery. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of lesion and liver, and the liver-to-lesion contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) for both pre- and postcontrast hepatobiliary phase were measured and contrast enhancement ratio (CER) of lesion and liver were calculated to correlate with three groups stratified by histological grades (Edmondson-Steiner classification) of the lesions. The differences between means of each group were statistically analyzed with one-way analysis of variance test. RESULTS: The liver-to-lesion CNRs of well-differentiated HCCs (n=9) on pre- (-0.8+/-13.2) and postcontrast hepatobiliary phase images (13.2+/-30.4) were significantly lower (p<0.05) compared to those of moderately (14.2+/-9.4 and 39.1+/-15.4 on pre- and postcontrast, respectively) (n=37) and poorly differentiated HCCs (18.6+/-11.3 and 39.3+/-27.9) (n=11), respectively. There were no significant difference for CERs between three histological tumor grades. CONCLUSION: Gadobenate dimeglumine-enhanced hepatobiliary phase MR imaging can help predict the histological grades of hepatocellular carcinomas preoperatively, especially differentiating well- from moderately and poorly differentiated HCCs.