Respiratory motion in children and young adults undergoing liver magnetic resonance imaging with intravenous gadoxetate disodium contrast material

Background Gadoxetate disodium, utilized in hepatobiliary magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, has been associated with transient respiratory motion during the arterial phase in adults. Objective The purpose of this study was to determine the presence and severity of this phenomenon in children imaged awake versus under general anesthesia. Materials and methods This retrospective cohort study was approved by the institutional review board; informed consent was waived. One hundred thirty exams of children ≤18 years old who underwent dynamic liver MR imaging with gadoxetate disodium between October 2010 and January 2018 were reviewed. Three pediatric radiologists scored respiratory motion artifacts on all imaging phases using a 5-point Likert scale. Differences in mean motion scores were assessed with analysis of variance and Tukey’s multiple comparisons test, and multivariable regression was used to identify predictors of arterial phase motion in awake patients. Results One hundred thirty patients (50% [ n =65] female; mean age: 9.8±3.7 years, 48.5% [ n =63] awake) were included. There were significant differences in mean motion scores between phases in the awake cohort ( P