Hepatic tumors: Magnetization transfer MR imaging with gadolinium enhancement

Abstract
Thirty patients with 15 hepatocellular carcinomas, 10 metastases, four hemangiomas, and one cholangiocarcinoma underwent magnetic resonance imaging at 1.5 T with T1‐weighted, T2‐ weighted spin‐echo (SE) images, gradient‐echo (GRE) magnetization transfer (MT) images, and gadolinium‐enhanced T1‐weighted SE and MT‐ GRE images. The MT effect and lesion‐liver contrast‐to‐noise ratio (C/N) were calculated and visual assessment (qualitative analysis) performed for unenhanced and enhanced MT‐GRE images and enhanced Tl‐weighted SE images. The C/N values for hepatic adenocarcinomas (seven metastases and one cholangiocarcinoma) and hemangiomas were larger for enhanced MT‐GRE images (adenocarcinoma, 8.4 ± 2.3 [P < 0.01); hemangioma, 24 ± 2.1 [P < 0.05]) than for enhanced GRE images (5.0 ± 1.9 and 18 ± 2.7, respectively).These enhancing tumors had the highest scores in the qualitative analysis. Enhanced MT‐GRE images showed no advantage for depiction of hepatocellular carcinomas relative to the other images.