COMPARATIVE STUDY OF FOCAL LIVER LESIONS ON CECT AND 3T MRI.

Abstract

Background: Focal liver disease is a common diagnostic problem referred to radiologists for evaluation owing to its nonspecic clinical presentation [1]. The rst line of investigation is ultrasonography. Since ultrasonography is less specic, better modes of investigation are needed for better characterization and hence diagnosis of FLLs. The available options are computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) [5]. It is important to characterize these lesions to determine their nature and thus, plan further management. Material & methods: This is a prospective observational study performed in tertiary care hospital during year 2021-22 which had 54 patients referred for CECT and MRI Abdomen & Pelvis scans to department of radiology with diagnosed or suspected focal liver lesions or deranged liver function tests (LFTs). These patients were evaluated on a 128 slice CTscanner and 3T MRI scanner. Results: In this study 51.9% cases were benign and 48.1% were malignant. Of the benign cases, 50% cases were abscesses followed by hydatid disease, haemangioma, biliary cystadenoma, simple cyst and hepatic adenoma as 17.8%, 17.8%, 7.1%, 3.5% and 3.5% respectively and of the malignant cases, 65.3% cases were metastasis followed by HCC, IHCC, spindle cell neoplasm and lymphoma as 19.2%, 7.7%, 3.8% and 3.8% respectively. While CECT correctly diagnosed 43 cases, MRI was able to diagnose 45 cases correctly. Conclusion: 1) CECT and MRI were found to be comparable and highly accurate in the diagnoses of FLLs. However, CECT performed better for abscesses whereas MRI was better for metastatic lesions. 2) DWI sequence was found to be of great importance in the diagnosis of not only smaller lesions, but also helped in the distinction of malignant lesions from benign. 3) Contrast administration was found to be invaluable in the condent characterization of FLLs both with CTand MRI.