ObjectiveTo explore the utility of magnetic resonance-T1ρ-weighted imaging (T1ρWI) in the diagnosis of human primary hepatic carcinoma. MethodsNine patients were prospectively collected from West China Hospital of Sichuan University during January 2014 and June 2014, who had liver lesion that identified by the ultrasound or CT examination, and then were verified as primary hepatic carcinoma with pathological biopsy. A routine T2WI, pre-and post-contrast T1WI, pre-and post-contrast T1ρWI were performed on a 3.0 T clinical imager. The tumor-to-normal-tissue contrast was compared between pre-contrast T1ρWI/post-contrast T1ρWI and other sequences respectively, to investigate the value of T1ρWI in the diagnosis of human primary hepatic carcinoma. ResultsThe tumor-to-normal-tissue contrast of pre-and post-contrast T1WI were lower than that of pre-contrast T1ρWI (t=3.532, P=0.008; t=3.666, P=0.006), while there was no statistical difference between T2WI and pre-contrast T1ρWI (t=-1.448, P=0.186). And compared with post-contrast T1ρWI, post-contrast T1WI had lower tumor-to-normal-tissue contrast (t=3.468, P=0.008). ConclusionsT1ρWI can provide a better image of human primary hepatic carcinoma, thus T1ρWI is expected to become a new and useful method in MR scanning. It also shows potential value who can be used as an artery imaging that without using contrast agents.