Diagnosing common bile duct obstruction: comparison of image quality and diagnostic performance of three-dimensional magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography with and without compressed sensing.

PURPOSE

This study aimed to evaluate image quality and diagnostic performance of a recently developed navigated three-dimensional magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (3D-MRCP) with compressed sensing (CS) based on parallel imaging (PI) and conventional 3D-MRCP with PI only in patients with abnormal bile duct dilatation.

METHODS

This institutional review board-approved study included 45 consecutive patients [non-malignant common bile duct lesions (n = 21) and malignant common bile duct lesions (n = 24)] who underwent MRCP of the abdomen to evaluate bile duct dilatation. All patients were imaged at 3T (MR 750, GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI) including two kinds of 3D-MRCP using 352 × 288 matrices with and without CS based on PI. Two radiologists independently and blindly assessed randomized images.

RESULTS

CS acceleration reduced the acquisition time on average 5 min and 6 s to a total of 2 min and 56 s. The all CS cine image quality was significantly higher than standard cine MR image for all quantitative measurements. Diagnostic accuracy for benign and malignant lesions is statistically different between standard and CS 3D-MRCP.

CONCLUSIONS

Total image quality and diagnostic accuracy at biliary obstruction evaluation demonstrates that CS-accelerated 3D-MRCP sequences can provide superior quality of diagnostic information in 42.5% less time. This has the potential to reduce motion-related artifacts and improve diagnostic efficacy.