Usefulness of the application of the BLADE technique to reduce motion artifacts on navigation-triggered prospective acquisition correction (PACE) T2-weighted MRI (T2WI) of the liver.

Purpose To evaluate the effects of the application of the BLADE (Siemens, Siemens Medical Systems, Erlangen, Germany) technique, a technique to reduce motion artifacts, on navigator-triggered prospective acquisition correction (PACE) T2-weighted MRI (T2WI) of the liver. Materials and Methods Twenty-three consecutive patients with a total of 57 localized hepatic diseases (39 malignant, 18 benign) and 57 patients without hepatic lesion underwent MR study during eupnea. The images were assessed quantitatively by calculating the liver–lesion contrast. Two subjective analyses were also performed. Two observers independently assessed the image quality and the confidence level of the detection and characterization of hepatic nodules using a five-point scale. Statistical analysis was performed with the Wilcoxon matched-pairs test except for the diagnostic performance evaluated with jackknife alternative free-response receiver operating characteristic (JAFROC) analysis. Results There was no significant difference in the mean liver–lesion contrast between the PACE T2WI with BLADE (T2WI-BLADE) (mean ± SD = 0.29 ± 0.14) and that without BLADE (0.30 ± 0.14) (P = 0.39). Visual assessment of PACE T2WI-BLADE (4.8 ± 0.47) was superior to that without BLADE (4.3 ± 0.8) (P < 0.0001), although there were no significant differences in detecting and characterizing hepatic lesions using JAFROC analysis. Conclusion The BLADE technique could improve image quality by reducing motion artifacts on hepatic MRI without affecting the diagnostic performance. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2009;30:321–326. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.