T2‐weighted MR imaging of focal hepatic lesions: Comparison of various RARE and fat‐suppressed spin‐echo sequences

Abstract

The authors prospectively compared four T2‐weighted magnetic resonance (MR) sequences, including high‐resolution 512 × 512 (matrix size) RARE (rapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement), 256 × 256 RARE, 128 × 256 breath‐hold RARE, and 192 × 256 fat‐suppressed spin‐echo (T2FS) sequences, in the evaluation of 16 patients with focal hepatic masses. MR images were evaluated by quantitative lesion‐liver signal difference‐to‐noise ratios (SDNRs) and subjective evaluation of image artifact and image quality. No significant differences were observed between RARE sequences in SDNR values. The T2FS sequence had a significantly higher SDNR than the 512 × 512 RARE sequence (24.6 ± 15.0 vs 14.5 ± 9.7) (P =.008). Image quality was rated highest for the 512 × 512 RARE and T2FS sequences (P =.006). The inherent advantage of high spatial resolution suggests that the 512 × 512 RARE sequence may be of value in detecting hepatic lesions.