Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of double-arterial phase gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using 3-dimensional gradient-echo sequences compared with double-arterial phase multi-detector row helical computed tomography (CT).
Methods: This study included 15 patients with 24 surgically proven hepatocellular carcinomas. Dynamic MRI and CT were evaluated by 2 observers using a 4-point scale. We compared the scores of double-arterial phase MRI and CT for each observer and determined whether a significant difference existed.
Results: Using MRI, 83% and 79% of the lesions were considered hypervascular by the two observers versus 88% for both observers using CT. The difference between MRI and CT was not significant.
Conclusions: Double-arterial phase gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid-enhanced MRI is as useful as double-arterial phase multi-detector row helical CT for detecting the hypervascularity of hepatocellular carcinoma.