Objective To explore the clinical value of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid （Gd-EOB-DTPA） enhanced magnetic resonance （MR） imaging for cirrhosis-related nodules. Methods Nineteen patients who were suspected cirrhosis with lesions of liver were prospectively included for Gd-EOB-DTPA enhanced MR imaging test between Nov. 2011 and Jan. 2013. The hepatobiliary phase （HBP） images were taken in 20 minutes after agents’ injection. The images were diagnosed independently in two groups： group A， including the plain phase and dynamic phase images； group B， including plain phase， dynamic phase， and HBP phase images. The signal intensity （SI） of lesions in HBP images， background liver SI， and background noise standard deviation were measured by using a circular region of interest， then the lesion signal to noise ratio （SNR） and contrast signal to noise ratio （CNR） were calculated. Results Nineteen patients had 25 tumors in all， including 18 hepatocelluar carcinoma （HCC） and 7 regenerative nodule （RN） or dysplastic nodule （DN）， with the diameter ranged from 0.6 cm to 3.2 cm （average 1.3 cm） . Sixteen HCC manifested hypo SI relative to the normal liver， while 2 HCC manifested hyper SI at HBP. Five HCC had cystic necrosis with the necrotic area， and there were no enhancement in artery phase， while performed flocculent enhancement at HBP. Six RN or DN showed hyper SI while another 1 showed iso SI to background liver at HBP. The diagnostic accuracy rates of group A and group B were 80.0% （20/25） and 92.0% （23/25）. SNR of RN or DN at HBP was 132.90±17.21， and of HCC was 114.35±19.27， while the CNR of RN or DN was 19.47±8.20， and of HCC was 112.15±33.52. Conclusion Gd-EOB-DTPA enhanced MR imaging can improve the diagnosis capacity of cirrhosis-related nodules， so as to develop more accurate and reasonable treatment options.
ObjectiveTo explore the relationship between the signal intensity on hepatobiliary phase of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA)-enhanced MRI and the degree of differentiation of hepatocelluar carcinoma (HCC). MethodsForty-eight cases of HCC with Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI images in our hospital were retrospectively included. The signal to noise ratio (SNR), contrast ratio (CR), enhancement ratio of signal to noise ratio (%EnhancementSNR), enhancement ratio of the contrast ratio (%EnhancementCR), enhancement ratio (ER), and relative enhancement ratio (RER) were calculated, respectively. Then comparisons of these signal values among different differentiations of HCC were performed. ResultsAmong the 48 cases of HCC, there were 6 cases of well differentiated, 24 cases of moderately differentiated, and 18 cases of poorly differentiated. There were 37 cases of Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP)A classification and 11 cases of B classification, respectively. Neither in all cases nor in cases of CTP A classification, there was no statistically significant difference in SNR, CR, %EnhancementSNR, %EnhancementCR, ER, and RER among cases of different differentiation (P > 0.05). ConclusionThe signal intensity on hepatobiliary phase images of Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI has limited value in predicting the degree of differentiation of HCC.