[Initial experiences with MR in liver tumors].

We examined 21 patients with focal lesions of the liver. Routinely we used T1 weighted, proton weighted and T2 weighted measurement modes, mainly with repetition times of 1.6 sec and echo delay times of 35 or 120 msec. Using these parameters we can see characteristic changes of the signals of the liver tumours. Cystic lesions usually show a strong decrease of the signal in the T1 weighted images in comparison with the normal liver pattern, in the proton weighted images a weak decrease but also in some cases a weak increase of the signal; in the T2 weighted images they show signals of very great intensity. We can differentiate haemangioma of cystic lesions because of the very strong signal in the proton weighted images in comparison with the normal liver pattern, which we could not see in any other focal liver disease. Metastases and hepatoma produced low signal intensity in the T1 weighted image. The proton weighted and the T2 weighted images show signals with a slightly greater intensity compared with the normal pattern, i.e. a very good possibility to distinguish hepatoma and metastases from cystic lesions or haemangioma. The differentiation from hepatoma and metastases cannot be made with NMR up to now. We are also not able to differentiate the focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) from metastases. We used a 0.35 T supraconductive magnetic system.