Detection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Pre-Liver Transplant Patients: Diagnostic Performance of DWI Compared to Gadolinium-Enhanced Imaging

¹Radiology, NYU Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

In this study, we compared the diagnostic performance of DWI vs. gadolinium-enhanced MRI for the detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in cirrhotic patients before liver transplantation. DWI was found to have overall lower sensitivity per patient and per lesion, with however better specificity than Gd-enhanced images, due to the non visualization of arterio-portal shunts. The combination of DWI with Gd-enhanced images may improve the specificity of Gd-enhanced imaging for HCC detection.