الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Hepatic focal lesions may be benign or malignant. Therapy requires an accurate diagnosis, which in turn relies primarily on appropriate imaging and image-guided biopsy. Triphasic CT was believed to be the standard in evaluating the hepatic focal lesions and together with alpha fetoprotein, the lesions were decided either non conclusive and needing biopsy or conclusive. According to number ‘and distribution of the lesions (if proved malignant) surgery, radiofrequency ablation, alcohol injection or chemo-remobilization was decided. Unfortunately, not all cases with HCC having high alpha fetoprotein and not all cases having typical imaging criteria of HCC and also, not all lesions detected by US are seen in the dynamic CT study. MRI having many sequences, markedly helps in the detection of small lesions and in reaching the diagnosis easily even without contrast injection or the need for biopsy as in cysts and hemangiomas. For hepatic focal lesions detection and characterization, conventional MRI relies on T1-weighted, T2-weighted and DW MRI in the liver is a relative new and increasingly used imaging technique. It has the advantage that it can be obtained during a single breath-hold, there is no need to use contrast media and it provides unique information that reflects tissue cellularity and organization. The ADC maps can also provide quantitative measurements of tissue water diffusivity, which can be used not only for disease assessment, but also for the evaluation of disease response to treatment. |