Improved Characterization of Liver Lesions with Hepatobiliary Phase Free-Breathing, Phase Sensitive Inversion Recovery MRI

Motivation: Gadoxetic acid enhanced T1 weighted (T1w) MRI is widely used for the detection of liver lesions. However, it is inadequate for lesion characterization due to poor contrast variation among lesions. Enhancing T1 contrast may enable simultaneous detection and characterization of lesions using a single T1w sequence. Goal(s): To demonstrate improved lesion characterization with phase sensitive inversion recovery (PSIR) T1w MRI. Approach: Forty patients were imaged prospectively using a free-breathing PSIR T1w sequence at 1.5T and 3.0T. Image quality and lesion-to-liver contrast were compared to conventional navigated spoiled gradient echo (SGRE) T1w imaging. Results: PSIR-T1w showed improved lesion visualization compared to SGRE T1w. Impact: GA-enhanced PSIR-T1w MRI improves T1 contrast and offers variable T1w imaging in a single acquisition, enabling both detection and characterization of lesions with a single T1w image acquisition.