Clinical performance of a simulated abbreviated liver magnetic resonance imaging in combination with contrast-enhanced computed tomography for the baseline evaluation of the liver in patients with colorectal cancer.

AIM

To assess the diagnostic accuracy and inter-reader agreement of a simulated abbreviated gadoxetate liver magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol together with contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CE-CT) against a standard gadoxetate MRI for the detection of colorectal liver metastases at baseline.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Three readers independently evaluated two sets of images per patient, recording number and location of metastases and benign lesions. Set 1 comprised T1w, T2w, DWI, multiphase CE-T1w, and hepatobiliary phase (HBP) images (standard). Set 2 included T2w, HBP, DWI (from Set 1) and CE-CT (simulated abbreviated). Diagnostic performance was compared using McNemar's test. The level of agreement between sets 1 and 2 was determined with Cohen kappa. For agreement in the number of benign lesions and metastases, we applied intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).

RESULTS

Seventy-five patients (245 metastases, 122 benign lesions) were evaluated. There was no significant difference in diagnostic accuracy between set 1 and 2 for each reader (mean P = 0.74). The total number of metastases and benign lesions showed high agreement between reading set 1 and 2 (κ = 0.81, 0.78). The total number of metastases showed substantial agreement between readers for set 1 and 2 (ICC = 0.99, 0.99). Good agreement was seen for metastatic segmental involvement (κ = 0.84-0.99).

CONCLUSION

At baseline, using a simulated abbreviated liver MRI together with CE-CT showed excellent agreement with standard MRI protocol for liver metastasis detection.