Lesion Detectability on T2-Weighted Liver Imaging with Parallel RF Transmission at 3.0 Tesla: Intraindividual Comparison with Conventional MR Imaging.

Guido Matthias Kukuk¹, Juergen Gieseke^1,2, Sebastian Weber¹, Frank Traeber¹, Jan Ullrich¹, Nuschin Morakkabati-Spitz¹, Daniel Thomas¹, Hans Heinz Schild¹, Winfried Albert Willinek¹

High field MRI has introduced new challenges especially for body imaging with respect to B1 field non-uniformities. Parallel RF transmission allows for more homogeneous excitation, thus improving image quality especially for T2-weighted liver imaging at 3.0 Tesla. Therefore, we evaluated 52 patients in an intraindividual study design to determine the effect of parallel RF transmission on lesion detectability for T2-weighted imaging as compared to conventional MR imaging. Our data demonstrate a significantly higher detection rate of focal liver lesions using parallel RF transmission.