Comparison of portal venous and delayed phases of gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging study of cirrhotic liver for the detection of contrast washout of hypervascular hepatocellular carcinoma

Objective: To retrospectively compare portal venous phase (PVP) and delayed phase (DP) for the detection of tumor washout at gadobenate dimeglumineYenhanced liver magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in cirrhotic patients with hypervascular hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: Thirty-three patients with 55 HCCs underwent 1.5-T MRI by means of fat-suppressed T1-weighted sequence obtained before and after gadobenate dimeglumine administration, during early and late arterial phases, PVP (70 seconds), and DP (180 seconds). Detection rates of contrast washout of hypervascular HCCs and tumor-to-liver contrast on PVP and DP were measured and compared. Results: Among 54 hypervascular HCCs, washout was present in 24 (44%) of 54 tumors on PVP and in 44 (82%) of 54 on DP (P G 0.001). In 20 (37%) of 54 tumors, washout was deemed present only on DP. Delayed phase images yielded significantly higher mean tumor-to-liver contrast absolute values compared with PVP images (j24.5 [56.1] vs j9.3 [52.6], P = 0.001). Conclusions: Delayed phase is superior to PVP for the washout detection of hypervascular HCC at gadobenate dimeglumineYenhanced MRI of cirrhotic liver.