Abbreviated MRI (AMRI) could improve the diagnostic performance of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but it lacks analysis in different subgroups and effective validation. The investigators aimed to compare and validate the diagnostic performance of different AMRI protocols in diagnosing early-stage HCC.
This retrospective study enrolled untreated patients at risk for developing HCC who underwent gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI from three independent cohorts from January 2020 to December 2022. Three AMRI protocols were extracted from the complete liver MRI protocol, including non-contrast (NC-AMRI), hepatobiliary phase (HBP-AMRI); and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE-AMRI). Two readers at each cohort independently interpreted each AMRI based on ancillary and main features from the Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) version 2018. For DCE-AMRI, two established algorithms were employed: modified LI-RADS (DCE-AMRIm) and LI-RADS v2018 (DCE-AMRIv2018). Non-HCCs were ascertained based on histologic and clinical follow-up data, while early-stage HCCs were confirmed post-operatively. Patient-level performance metrics were compared using bootstrap resampling and generalized estimating equations.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
938
China, Guangdong
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Number of patients with HCC
Time frame: immediately after the surgery
Number of patients with non-HCC
Time frame: immediately after pathology from postoperative or biopsy samples, or clinical diagnosis after at least 1 year without imaging indications of liver malignancy.
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