Intraindividual Crossover Comparison of Gadoxetic Acid Dose for Liver MRI in Normal Volunteers

Abstract

Purpose: We performed a quantitative intraindividual comparison of the performance of 0.025-and 0.05-mmol/kg doses for gadoxetic acid-enhanced liver magnetic resonance (MR) imaging.Materials and Methods: Eleven healthy volunteers underwent liver MR imaging twice, once with a 0.025-and once with a 0.05-mmol/kg dose of gadoxetic acid. MR spectroscopy and 3-dimensional gradient-echo T 1 -weighted images (3D-GRE) were obtained before and 3, 10, and 20 min after injection of the contrast medium to measure T 1 and T 2 values and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) performance. During the dynamic phase, highly time-resolved 3D-GRE was used to estimate the relative CNR (CNR rel ) of the hepatic artery and portal vein (PV) to the liver. We used paired t-tests to compare the results of different doses.Results: During the hepatobiliary phase, we observed shorter T 1 values and higher SNRs of the liver (P < 0.001) and higher liver-to-PV and liver-to-muscle CNRs (P < 0.002) using 0.05 mmol/kg compared to 0.025 mmol/kg. Increasing the dose to 0.05 mmol/kg yielded a greater T 1 -shortening effect at 10 min delay even compared with 0.025 mmol/kg at 20 min (P < 0.001). During the dynamic phase, the peak CNR rel for the hepatic artery and portal vein were higher using 0.05 mmol/kg (P = 0.007 to 0.035).Conclusion: Use of gadoxetic acid at a dose of 0.05 mmol/kg leads to significantly higher SNR and CNR performance than with 0.025 mmol/kg. Quantitatively, a 10-min delay may be feasible for hepatobiliary-phase imaging when using 0.05 mmol/kg of gadoxetic acid.

Transient Severe Respiratory Motion Artifacts After Application of Gadoxetate Disodium: What We Currently Know

“…With regard to gender, Motosugi et al showed a predisposition towards male sex [29]. In contrast, Shah et al proposed a correlation between TSM and female sex [14].…”

T1‐corrected quantitative chemical shift‐encoded MRI

“…29,30 Further, the dramatic changes in T 1W after the administration of contrast will also impact PDFF estimates by LFA strategies. [31][32][33] To examine the residual bias in LFA-CSE-MRI over a wide range of T 1 values, a computer simulation was performed. Noiseless SGRE signals were generated using Equation 4 with T 1W = 380, 586, 680 and 830 ms to predict the effects of T 1W variation on PDFF estimation with LFA-CSE-MRI, using LFA acquisition parameters experiment described below for the in vivo liver study.…”

“… T 1W values from 380–800 ms have been reported . Further, the dramatic changes in T 1W after the administration of contrast will also impact PDFF estimates by LFA strategies …”

Added value of gadoxetic acid-enhanced T1-weighted magnetic resonance cholangiography for the diagnosis of post-transplant biliary complications

“…Studies have shown that higher doses of gadoxetic acid improves the quality of arterial phase dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI [28–30]. Based on these data, the local standard of care at our institution is to administer 0.05 mmol/kg gadoxetic acid.…”