Respiratory motion artifact is a common pitfall in MRI of the liver and no standard of practice currently exists for breath-hold imaging techniques. This retrospective observational study compared image quality between end-inspiration and end-expiration breath-holding techniques. Precontrast T1-weighted 3D spoiled gradient recalled echo imaging of the liver obtained using the two techniques were compared in 50 consecutive subjects, along with postcontrast sequences in a subset of 47. Three radiologists performed blinded evaluations of respiratory motion in the sequences. Breath-holding technique at end-expiration was significantly better at reducing respiratory motion artifacts, yielding fewer images of nondiagnostic quality than end-inspiration breath-holding technique.
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