Value of T1 mapping on gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI for microvascular invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma: a retrospective study

To evaluate the utility of non-invasive parameters derived from T1 mapping and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) on gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI for predicting microvascular invasion (MVI) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A total of 94 patients with single HCC undergoing partial hepatectomy was analyzed in this retrospective study. Preoperative T1 mapping and DWI on gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI was performed. The parameters including precontrast, postcontrast and reduction rate of T1 relaxation time and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values were measured for differentiating MVI-positive HCCs (n = 38) from MVI-negative HCCs (n = 56). The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was analyzed to compare the diagnostic performance of the calculated parameters. MVI-positive HCCs demonstrated a significantly lower reduction rate of T1 relaxation time than that of MVI-negative HCCs (39.4% vs 49.9, P