Magnetic resonance-guided upper abdominal biopsies in a high-field wide-bore 3-T MRI system: feasibility, handling, and needle artefacts

To investigate the feasibility and handling of abdominal MRI-guided biopsies in a 3-T MRI system. Over a 1-year period, 50 biopsies were obtained in 47 patients with tumours of the upper abdominal organs guided by 3-T MRI with a large-bore diameter of 70 cm. Lesions in liver (47), spleen (1) and kidney (2) were biopsied with a coaxial technique using a 16-G biopsy needle guided by a T1-weighted three-dimensional gradient recalled echo volumetric interpolated breath-hold examination (T1w-3D-GRE-VIBE) sequence. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, complication rate, interventional complexity, room/intervention time and needle artefacts were determined. A sensitivity of 0.93, specificity of 1.0 and accuracy of 0.94 were observed. Three patients required a rebiopsy. There was a minor complications rate of 13.6%, and no major complications were observed. Histopathology revealed 38 malignant lesions, and 3-month follow-up confirmed 9 benign lesions. Mean lesion diameter was 3.4 ± 3.1 cm (50% being smaller than 2 cm). Mean needle tract length was 10.8 ± 3.3 cm. Median room time was 42.0 ± 19.8 min and intervention time 9.3 ± 8.1 min. Needle artefact size was about 9-fold greater for perpendicular access versus access parallel to the main magnetic field. Biopsies of the upper abdomen can be performed with great technical success and easy handling because of the large-bore diameter. The MRI-guided biopsy needle had an acceptable susceptibility artefact at 3 T. However future research must aim to reduce the susceptibility effects of the biopsy systems. (orig.)