EVALUATION OF THE ROLE OF DIFFERENT MRI TECHNIQUES IN DETECTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF HEPATIC LESIONS

This study included sixty patients and 12 healthy adult volunteers, the sixty patients were (28 males and 32 females, their age ranged from 21 to 72 years). Our 60 patients were classified into 48 patients with focal liver lesions and 12 patients with diffuse liver disease (according to ultrasonography and/or computed tomography findings).Fourty eight patients with focal hepatic lesions were classified into; non neoplastic lesions (9 cases) which included 4 cases of simple hepatic cysts, 2 cases of hydatid cysts and 3 cases of liver abscesses, benign lesions (12 cases) which included 11 cases of hemangiomas and one case of multiple lipomas, and malignant lesions (27 cases) that included 18 cases of hepatocellular carcinomas, two case of cholangiocarcinomas and 7 cases of metastases. US, conventional MRI, DWI and dynamic studies were done to all of these cases.Magnetic resonance imaging offers high intrinsic soft tissue contrast, and detailed anatomic information owing to its multiplanar capabilities. The selection of appropriate MR sequences, as well as the introduction of dynamic scanning and DWI increases the accuracy of diagnosis of focal hepatic masses whenever other imaging modalities including US and tri-phasic CT were inconclusive.