Comparison of lung lesion assessment using free-breathing dynamic contrast-enhanced 1.5-T MRI with a golden-angle radial stack-of-stars VIBE sequence and CT.

Background: Few studies have investigated the feasibility of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) using a free-breathing golden-angle radial stack-of-stars volume-interpolated breath-hold examination (FB radial VIBE) sequence in the lung.

Purpose: To investigate whether DCE-MRI using the FB radial VIBE sequence can assess morphological and kinetic parameters in patients with pulmonary lesions, with computed tomography (CT) as the reference.

Material And Methods: In total, 43 patients (30 men; mean age = 64 years) with one lesion each were prospectively enrolled. Morphological and kinetic features on MRI were calculated. The diagnostic performance of morphological MR features was evaluated using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Kinetic features were compared among subgroups based on histopathological subtype, lesion size, and lymph node metastasis.

Results: The maximum diameter was not significantly different between CT and MRI (3.66 ± 1.62 cm vs. 3.64 ± 1.72 cm;  = 0.663). Spiculation, lobulation, cavitation or bubble-like areas of low attenuation, and lymph node enlargement had an area under the ROC curve (AUC) >0.9, while pleural indentation yielded an AUC of 0.788. The lung cancer group had significantly lower K, V, and initial AUC values than the other cause inflammation group (0.203, 0.158, and 0.589 vs. 0.597, 0.385, and 1.626;  < 0.05) but significantly higher values than the tuberculosis group ( < 0.05).

Conclusion: Morphology features derived from FB radial VIBE have high correlations with CT, and kinetic analyses show significant differences between benign and malignant lesions. DCE-MRI with FB radial VIBE could serve as a complementary quantification tool to CT for radiation-free assessments of lung lesions.