Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Aug 8, 2015; 7(16): 1987-2008
Published online Aug 8, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i16.1987
Focal liver lesions: Practical magnetic resonance imaging approach
António P Matos, Fernanda Velloni, Miguel Ramalho, Mamdoh AlObaidy, Aruna Rajapaksha, Richard C Semelka
António P Matos, Fernanda Velloni, Miguel Ramalho, Mamdoh AlObaidy, Aruna Rajapaksha, Richard C Semelka, Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7510, United States
António P Matos, Miguel Ramalho, Department of Radiology, Hospital Garcia de Orta, 2801-951 Almada, Portugal
Mamdoh AlObaidy, Department of Radiology, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh 11461, Saudi Arabia
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 statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with any of the senior author or other coauthors contributed their efforts in this manuscript.
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, Professor, Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina, UNC at Chapel Hill CB 7510 - 2001 Old Clinic Bldg., Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7510, United States. richsem@med.unc.edu
Telephone: +1-919-9669676 Fax: +1-919-8437147
Received: April 18, 2015
Peer-review started: April 18, 2015
First decision: June 18, 2015
Revised: June 24, 2015
Accepted: July 23, 2015
Article in press: July 27, 2015
Published online: August 8, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: With the widespread of cross-sectional imaging, a growth of incidentally detected focal liver lesions (FLL) has been observed. A reliable detection and characterization of FLL is critical for optimal patient management. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plays a key role in non-invasive characterization of FLL. The multiparametric ability of pre- and post-contrast sequences is an intrinsic advantage of MRI to reach an accurate diagnosis. New techniques such as diffusion-weighted sequences and hepatocyte-specific contrast agents are being currently used in clinical practice, which might further improve the detection and characterization of FLL.