Magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of the liver diseases

To evaluate the usefulness of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in the diagnosis of liver diseases, MR imaging was performed in 20 patients with liver diseases. MR imaging was carried out with a 0.5-Tesla superconducting magnet by a spin-echo technique, from which T1 and T2-weighted images were obtained. Based on our more than ten years experience with CT diagnosis, the essentials and limits of CT diagnosis were summarized and compared with those of MR. CT and MR were almost equally effective in the diagnosis of liver diseases, but MR was especially useful in determining the extent of necrosis in liver cancer after TAE (transcatheter arterial embolization) or PEIT (percutaneous ethanol injection therapy). The diagnosis of hemangiomas and hemosiderosis, as well as the differentiation of small liver cancer and liver cyst, was superior to that using conventional X-ray CT. (author)