Usefulness of the Short-Echo Time Cube Sequence at 3-T Magnetic Resonance Cholangiopancreatography: Prospective Comparison With the Conventional 3-Dimensional Fast Spin-Echo Sequence.

Objectives: We evaluated prospectively the clinical use of the short-echo time (TE) Cube sequence for magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) at 3 T.

Methods: Using a 3-T unit, we subjected 41 consecutive patients to short-TE Cube MRCP and conventional 3-dimensional fast spin-echo (3D-FSE) MRCP. Two radiologists independently rated the image quality and the visibility of the right and left hepatic, cystic, common bile, and main pancreatic ducts and the gallbladder on a 4-point scale. The averaged visual scores by 2 readers for the image quality were calculated, and the artifacts were evaluated in cases with relatively lower (<3) score. The signal-to-noise ratio, contrast-to-noise ratio, and acquisition time were evaluated by quantitative analysis.

Results: The visual scores of the common bile duct (P < 0.05), cystic duct (P < 0.01), and gallbladder (P < 0.01) were significantly higher for Cube than 3D-FSE MRCP. Signal-to-noise ratio was also significantly higher for Cube than 3D-FSE MRCP (P < 0.01). There was no significant difference in the image acquisition time (352.1 ± 93.0 vs 314.1 ± 126.2 seconds, P = 0.059). Four cases on 3D-FSE MRCP and 2 cases on Cube MRCP have relatively lower image quality; however, the difference was not significant (P = 0.18).

Conclusions: The visibility of biliary structures is significantly better on short-TE Cube MRCP than conventional 3D-FSE MRCP images at a clinically acceptable acquisition time.