Pulmonary nodule detection in oncological patients – Value of respiratory-triggered, periodically rotated overlapping parallel T2-weighted imaging evaluated with PET/CT-MR

Conclusion Despite the overall lower detection rate compared with CT, the free-breathing respiratory gating T2-w sequence showed higher detectability in all evaluated categories compared to breath-hold T1–weighted MR sequences. Specifically, the T2-P was found to be not statistically different from CT in FDG-positive nodules, in detection of nodules >10mm and concerning conspicuity of pulmonary nodules. Overall, the additional time investment into T2-P seems to be justified since clinical relevant assessment of pulmonary lung nodules can mostly be done by T2-P in a whole body PET/MR staging of oncologic patients.
Source: European Journal of Radiology - Category: Radiology Source Type: research