Small (≤ 2 Cm) Enhancing Lesions Seen Only During the Hepatic Arterial Phase: Evaluation with Gadobenate Dimeglumine (Gd-BOPTA) Enhanced MR Imaging During the Hepatobiliary Phase

Michele Di Martino¹, Daniele Marin¹, Antonino Guerrisi¹, Gianmaria De Filippis¹, Francesca Galati¹, Carlo Catalano¹, Roberto Passariello¹

Typical Imaging findings for a confident and reliable diagnosis of HCC at MR imaging include: on T2-w images, typical HCC shows high signal intensity to the background liver; during the arterial phase, the lesion is generally hyperintense due to the dominant arterial supply. By converse, HCC becomes hypointense to the surrounding liver during the portal venous and equilibrium phases. However, a substantial number of small ( 2 cm) can only be detected as hypervascular foci during the arterial phase that is, unfortunately, a nonspecific finding.The hepatobiliary phase of Gd-BOPTA MR imaging enables accurate diagnosis of benign HAPE-only nodules and HAPE-only HCCs