ArticleCancers2024
Prospective Study of Non-Contrast, Abbreviated MRI for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Surveillance in Patients with Suboptimal Hepatic Visualisation on Ultrasound.
Article in Cancers, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Hepatocellular carcinoma surveillance in Europe: challenges and lessons from global practice.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2026Review
- Interreader agreement for image quality, observation detection, and proposed AMRI-LI-RADS classification in non-contrast abbreviated MRI for hepatocellular carcinoma surveillance among early-to-mid career radiologists.Abdominal radiology (New York) · 2026Article
- Cancer Detection and Surveillance Pathways with Abbreviated MRI in the Prostate, Pancreas, and Liver: A Risk-Stratified Narrative Review.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2026Review
- Persisting challenges in the early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma.Expert review of anticancer therapy · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
17 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBiannual ultrasound (US) is recommended for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) surveillance in patients with cirrhosis. However, US has limited sensitivity for early-stage HCC, particularly in overweight cohorts, where hepatic visualisation is often inadequate. Currently there are no robust imaging surveillance strategies in patients with inadequate US visualisation. We investigated the ability of non-contrast, abbreviated magnetic resonance imaging (aMRI) to adequately visualise the liver for HCC surveillance in patients with previously inadequate US.
methodsPatients undergoing US surveillance, where liver visualisation was inadequate (LI-RADS VIS-B and VIS-C), were prospectively recruited. Patients underwent non-contrast T2-weighted and diffusion-weighted aMRI. The images were reviewed and reported by an expert liver radiologist. Three independent, blinded radiologists assessed the aMRI visualisation quality using a binary score assessing five parameters (parenchymal definition, vascular definition, coverage of the liver, uniformity of liver appearance and signal-to-noise ratio).
resultsThirty patients completed the aMRI protocol. The majority (90%) had underlying cirrhosis and were overweight (93.3%), with 50% obese and 20% severely obese. A total of 93.3% of the aMRI scans were of satisfactory quality. Six patients (20%) had hepatic abnormalities detected with aMRI that were not seen on their US: one HCC, one haemangioma and three clinically insignificant lesions. For the aMRI visualisation quality assessment, the coverage of the liver, vascular definition and parenchymal definition were consistently rated to be of sufficient quality by all three radiologists.
conclusionsNon-contrast aMRI provided good visualisation of the liver and detection of abnormalities in patients with inadequate US. aMRI should be further explored in a larger, prospective study as an alternative surveillance strategy in patients with inadequate US.
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