Single breath-hold T2-weighted MR imaging of the liver: Value of single-shot fast spin-echo and multishot spin-echo echoplanar imaging

OBJECTIVE. The objective of our study was to evaluate the efficacy of single breath-hold T2-weighted MR imaging for detection of focal hepatic lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS. T2-weighted MR images were retrospectively reviewed from 51 patients with 85 solid and 59 nonsolid lesions using the following four sequences: conventional spin-echo, respiratory-triggered fast spin-echo, single-shot fast spin-echo, and multishot spin-echo echoplanar imaging. Images were reviewed on a hepatic segment-by-seg ment basis; T2-weighted images of a total of 408 hepatic segments were reviewed separately and independently for solid and nonsolid lesions by four radiologists. Quantitative, qualitative, and receiver operating characteristic analyses were performed. RESULTS. For solid lesions, no significant differences were seen among the lesion-to-liver contrast-to-noise ratios with the four sequences. In terms of solid lesion detection, no significant difference was seen between the diagnostic accuracy of multishot spin-echo echoplanar (A(z) = 0.90) and respiratory-triggered fast spin-echo (A(z) = 0.91) imaging, which showed the best performance of the four sequences. For nonsolid lesion detection, respiratory-triggered fast spin-echo and single-shot fast spin-echo imaging were judged the best (A(z) = 0.94). CONCLUSION. Breath-hold single-shot fast spin-echo and multishot spin-echo echoplanar sequences can be substituted for conventional spin-echo and respiratory-triggered fast spin-echo T2-weighted sequences.