Hypervascular hepatocellular carcinomas: detection with gadoxetate disodium-enhanced MR imaging and multiphasic multidetector CT.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To retrospectively compare the accuracy of detection of hypervascular hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by multiphasic multidetector CT and by gadoxetate disodium-enhanced MR imaging. METHODS: After ethical approval, we analysed a total of 73 hypervascular HCC lesions from 31 patients suspected of having HCC, who underwent both gadoxetate disodium-enhanced MR imaging and multiphasic multidetector CT. Five blinded observers independently reviewed CT images, as well as dynamic MR images alone and combined with hepatobiliary phase MR images. Diagnostic accuracy (Az values), sensitivities and positive predictive values were compared by using the Scheffe post hoc test. RESULTS: The mean Az value for dynamic and hepatobiliary phase MR combined (0.81) or dynamic MR images alone (0.78) was significantly higher than that for CT images (0.67, P < 0.001, 0.005, respectively). The mean sensitivity of the combined MR images (0.67) was significantly higher than that of dynamic MR alone (0.52, P < 0.05) or CT images (0.44, P < 0.05). The mean positive predictive values were 0.96, 0.95 and 0.94, for CT, dynamic MR alone and combined MR images, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with multiphasic multidetector CT, gadoxetate disodium-enhanced MR imaging combining dynamic and hepatobiliary phase images results in significantly improved sensitivity and diagnostic accuracy for detection of hypervascular HCC. KEY POINTS Gadoxetate disodium is a new liver-specific MR imaging contrast agent. Gadoxetate disodium-enhanced MRI helps the assessment of patients with liver disease. It showed high diagnostic accuracy for the detection of hepatocellular carcinoma.