Factors predicting aggressiveness of non-hypervascular hepatic nodules detected on hepatobiliary phase of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylene-triamine-pentaacetic-acid magnetic resonance imaging

Figure 4 Characteristics of non-hypervascular nodules clarified by univariate analyses. Non-hypervascular nodules (NHNs) that were detected in the hepatobiliary phase of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylene-triamine-pentaacetic-acid magnetic resonance imaging were univariately characterized. NHNs were classified into 1 of 2 categories, resolved or progressed, in which NHNs decreased by 2 mm or more in diameter without hypervascularity or increased by 2 mm or more or gained an arterial supply, respectively. A: In 58 progressed NHNs, 43% were detected in T1-weighted imaging (T1WI) and/or T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) (black box), whereas only 6.7% showed positive results in the resolved NHNs by T1WI and/or T2WI imaging, leading to a significantly higher detection rate among progressed NHNs; B: In the arterial phase, progressed NHNs were detected as less attenuated nodules (black box) with significantly higher frequency than resolved NHNs were (34.5% vs 6.7%, respectively, P = 0.05); C: The median patient age in the resolved NHN group was 51 years (IQR: 38-72 years), which was significantly younger than the 75 years (IQR: 70-77.3 years) of the progressed group; D: Serum albumin concentration was significantly higher in the resolved NHN group, 4.3 g/dL (IQR: 3.6-4.3 g/dL), than in the progressed group, 3.7 g/dL (IQR: 3.3-3.9 g/dL).