Respiratory motion artefacts in Gd-EOB-DTPA (Primovist/Eovist) and Gd-DOTA (Dotarem)-enhanced dynamic phase liver MRI after intensified and standard pre-scan patient preparation: A bi-institutional analysis.

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate if intensified pre-scan patient preparation (IPPP) that comprises custom-made educational material on dynamic phase imaging and supervised pre-imaging breath-hold training in addition to standard informative conversation with verbal explanation of breath-hold commands (standard pre-scan patient preparation-SPPP) might reduce the incidence of gadoxetate disodium (Gd-EOB-DTPA)-related transient severe respiratory motion (TSM) and severity of respiratory motion (RM) during dynamic phase liver MRI.

Material And Methods: In this bi-institutional study 100 and 110 patients who received Gd-EOB-DTPA for dynamic phase liver MRI were allocated to either IPPP or SPPP at site A and B. The control group comprised 202 patients who received gadoterate meglumine (Gd-DOTA) of which each 101 patients were allocated to IPPP or SPPP at site B. RM artefacts were scored retrospectively in dynamic phase images (1: none- 5: extensive) by five and two blinded readers at site A and B, respectively, and in the hepatobiliary phase of the Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced scans by two blinded readers at either site.

Results: The incidence of TSM was 15% at site A and 22.7% at site B (p = 0.157). IPPP did not reduce the incidence of TSM in comparison to SPPP: 16.7% vs. 21.6% (p = 0.366). This finding was consistent at site A: 12% vs. 18% (p = 0.401) and site B: 20.6% vs. 25% (p = 0.590). The TSM incidence in patients with IPPP and SPPP did not differ significantly between both sites (p = 0.227; p = 0.390). IPPP did not significantly mitigate RM in comparison to SPPP in any of the Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced dynamic phases and the hepatobiliary phase in patients without TSM (all p≥0.072). In the Gd-DOTA control group on the other hand, IPPP significantly mitigated RM in all dynamic phases in comparison to SPPP (all p≤0.031).

Conclusions: We conclude that Gd-EOB-DTPA-related TSM cannot be mitigated by education and training and that Gd-EOB-DTPA-related breath-hold difficulty does not only affect the subgroup of patients with TSM or exclusively the arterial phase as previously proposed.