Liver MRI at 3.0 Tesla

To prospectively and intraindividually compare liver magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using single-source and dual-source parallel radiofrequency (RF) transmissions at 3.0-T for image quality, lesion detectability, and lesion contrast.Ninety-nine patients with 139 liver lesions underwent liver MRI at 3.0-T. Two radiologists performed a consensus review of T2-weighted images (T2WI), heavily T2WI (HT2WI), gadoxetic acid-enhanced hepatobiliary images, and diffusion-weighted imaging using single-source and dual-source RF transmissions with regard to image quality and lesion detectability. Contrast ratios between liver lesions and liver parenchyma were also calculated.Image quality was better with dual-source than with single-source at T2WI and HT2WI (P0.05), but lesion detectabilities were similar for all sequences. There was no significant difference in mean contrast ratios for all sequences (P0.05).Dual-source RF transmission provides a better image quality with T2WI and HT2WI than with single-source. However, 2 techniques showed similar lesion detectability.