Hepatobiliary phase imaging in cirrhotic patients using compressed sensing and controlled aliasing in parallel imaging results in higher acceleration

Abstract

Objective We aimed to compare the image quality and focal lesion detection ability of hepatobiliary phase (HBP) images obtained using compressed sensing (CS) and controlled aliasing in parallel imaging results in higher acceleration (CAIPIRINHA) in patients with liver cirrhosis. Materials and methods We retrospectively included 244 gadoxetic acid-enhanced liver MRI from 244 patients with cirrhosis obtained by two HBP images using CS and CAIPIRINHA from July 2020 to December 2020. The optimized resolution and scan time for CS-HBP and CAIPIRINHA-HBP were 0.9 x 0.9 x 1.5 mm(3) and 15 s and 1.3 x 1.3 x 3 mm(3) and 16 s, respectively. We compared the image quality between the two sets of images in 244 patients and focal lesion (n = 294) analyses for 112 patients. Results CS-HBP showed comparable overall image quality (3.7 +/- 0.9 vs. 3.6 +/- 0.8, p = 0.680), superior liver edge sharpness (3.9 +/- 0.6 vs. 3.6 +/- 0.5, p < 0.001), and fewer respiratory motion artifacts (4.0 +/- 0.7 vs. 3.8 +/- 0.5, p < 0.001), but higher nonrespiratory artifacts (3.4 +/- 0.7 vs. 3.6 +/- 0.6, p < 0.001) and subjective image noise (3.5 +/- 0.8 vs. 3.6 +/- 0.7, p = 0.014) than CAIPIRINHA-HBP. CS-HBP showed a higher signal-to-noise ratio in the liver than CAIPIRINHA-HBP (20.9 +/- 9.0 vs. 18.9 +/- 7.1, p = 0.008). The pooled sensitivity, specificity, and AUC were 90.0%, 77.5%, and 0.84 for CS-HBP and 73.5%, 82.4%, and 0.78 for CAIPIRINHA-HBP, respectively. Conclusions CS-HBP showed better focal lesion detection ability, comparable overall image quality, and fewer respiratory motion artifacts, but higher non-respiratory artifacts and noise compared to CAIPIRINHA-HBP. Thus, CS-HBP could be recommended for liver MRI in patients with cirrhosis to improve diagnostic performance.