[New MR contrast media in liver diagnosis. Initial clinical results with hepatobiliary Eovist (gadolinium-EOB-DTPA) and RES-specific Resovist (SH U 555 A)].

The purpose of this work is to describe our initial clinical experience (in 66 patients) with Resovist and Eovist, two new liver-specific MR contrast agents. We focus our report on safety aspects, dose finding, and optimization and technical parameters. Both contrast agents were well tolerated and improved the detectability of focal liver lesions. With Resovist, postcontrast MRI may be started as early as 10 min following injection. The dose of 8 mumol Fe/kg bodyweight was sufficient to achieve diagnostic tumor-liver contrast levels. Since Eovist can also be administered as a bolus, dynamic enhancement patterns may be studied for tumor characterization as well. Breath-hold T1-weighted FLASH images were superior to other T1-weighted techniques with and without fat saturation.