Watanabe A, Ramalho M, AlObaidy M, Kim HJ, Velloni FG, Semelka RC. Magnetic resonance imaging of the cirrhotic liver: An update. World J Hepatol 2015; 7(3): 468-487 [PMID: 25848471 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i3.468]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Richard C Semelka, MD, Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB 7510 - 2001 Old Clinic Bldg, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7510, United States. richsem@med.unc.edu
Research Domain of This Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Hepatol. Mar 27, 2015; 7(3): 468-487 Published online Mar 27, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i3.468
Magnetic resonance imaging of the cirrhotic liver: An update
Agnes Watanabe, Miguel Ramalho, Mamdoh AlObaidy, Hye Jin Kim, Fernanda G Velloni, Richard C Semelka
Agnes Watanabe, Miguel Ramalho, Mamdoh AlObaidy, Hye Jin Kim, Fernanda G Velloni, Richard C Semelka, Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7510, United States
Author contributions: All authors have contributed equally to this work in form of literature review, manuscript writing/editing, and figure collection/illustration/annotation/captioning.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Richard C Semelka, MD, Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB 7510 - 2001 Old Clinic Bldg, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7510, United States. richsem@med.unc.edu
Telephone: +1-999-9669676 Fax: +1-999-8437147
Received: August 30, 2014 Peer-review started: August 30, 2014 First decision: September 30, 2014 Revised: October 10, 2014 Accepted: December 3, 2014 Article in press: December 3, 2014 Published online: March 27, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: Noninvasive imaging has become the standard for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) diagnosis in cirrhotic patients. Typical imaging features of HCC, including increased arterial enhancement and delayed washout, provide very high specificity and acceptable sensitivity in characterizing even very small nodules. Diagnostic limitations apply to detecting hypovascular HCCs and differentiating high-grade dysplastic nodules from early HCCs. New techniques such as diffusion-weighted images, T2*, and hepatocyte-specific magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents, are being currently evaluated, which might improve future detection and characterization of hepatic lesions when combined with the current standard imaging protocols with dynamic imaging.
