Chansik An1, Mi-Suk Park1, Woo-Suk Chung1, Yeo-Eun Kim1, Hyung-Jin Rhee1, Myeong-Jin Kim1
1Diagnostic radiology, Yonsei University Health System, Seoul, Korea, Republic of
Arterial enhancement of a hepatic nodule on dynamic magnetic resonance imaging is one of the major diagnostic criteria for hepatocellular carcinoma. In general, arterial enhancement has been accepted as showing "hyperintensity compared to the surrounding liver parenchyma on arterial phase. In this study, however, we showed that arterial enhancement should be determined by comparing pre-contrast and arterial phase images rather than assessing arterial phase alone, and that subtraction imaging can play a critical role in determining arterial enhancement because it can more accurately demonstrate arterial enhancement than visual comparison of the two phases.