Additional Diagnostic Value of Inversion Recovery Single-Shot Fast-Spin Echo Sequence in Differentiation Between Hepatic Hemangiomas and Cysts

摘要

Hepatic cysts and hemangiomas are the 2 most frequently encountered benign nonsolid liver lesions in daily clinical practice. The incidence of these water-rich lesions varies from 0.4% to 20% for hemangiomas and 15% for the cysts in general population.1 Both are common in women than in men, and most often found incidentally. During standard liver magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), T2-weighted (T2W) imaging is particularly useful for detection and tissue characterization of focal liver lesions. Although cysts and hemangiomas originate from different tissue types, they may have similar signal intensity on T2W images. Because these 2 lesions have very long T_2 values, they characteristically appear significantly hyperintense on T2W images in comparison with solid tumors. In some instances, however, if intravenous contrast medium is not administered, the differentiation between these lesions (ie, hemangiomas and cysts) with standard T2W imaging is not reliable. On the other hand, if an appropriate null point is chosen at inversion recovery (IR) sequence, the signal of hepatic hemangioma can be suppressed, but cyst continues to be hyperin-tense.