A comparative study of gadolinium-ethoxybenzyl-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging and contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the detection of intrahepatic lesion.

We evaluated the diagnostic performance of both gadolinium-ethoxybenzyl-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (Gd-EOB-DTPA-MRI) and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) for focal liver lesions, especially for the detection of small (<2 cm) intrahepatic lesions. We retrospectively reviewed patients who underwent Gd-EOB-DTPA-MRI and CEUS before liver resection and compared Gd-EOB-DTPA-MRI and CEUS in the detection of focal liver lesions. A total of 216 patients were included, and 309 lesions were found. The sensitivity values of MRI and CEUS for the main lesion were both more than 95%, and the coincidence rates were both more than 80%. Regarding lesions <2 cm, 135 such lesions were detected by MRI, whereas only 85 were detected by CEUS. For lesions <2 cm, the sensitivity, specificity, and coincidence rates of MRI were significantly better than those of CEUS. Among 27 patients, 50 more lesions were detected by MRI than CEUS, 56% (28/50) of which were malignant. For the large lesion, the diagnostic performance is similar between Gd-EOB-DTPA-MRI and CEUS, and the sensitivity and coincidence rates of both methods are high. Gd-EOB-DTPA-MRI is likely to detect small (<2 cm) focal intrahepatic lesions.