Preliminary Study of Detection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) and Vessel Thrombosis using Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide (SPIO) -Enhanced Balanced Turbo Field Echo (B-TFE) with T₂ prep

Abstract

We devised a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method for visualizing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and vessel thrombus using a three-dimensional balanced sequence (balanced turbo field echo: B-TFE) with a T₂ preparation pulse (T₂ prep) after enhanced superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) administration. At 1.5T, the following parameters were used: 350mm field of view, 4.3ms repetition time, 2.2ms echo time, 70degree flip angle, 1.0mm slice thickness, and low-to-high k-space profile order. Signal intensity and contrast were assessed in a phantom, and healthy volunteer images were acquired with different prep times. The signal to noise ratio (SNR) was assessed in healthy volunteers. The method was evaluated using optimal prep times from clinical cases: a prep time of 40ms provided the best definition in images of HCC and vessel thrombosis. SPIO-enhanced B-TFE with T₂ prep enabled clear and simultaneous visualization of HCC and vessel thrombus.