Objective To explore the clinical value of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid （Gd-EOB-DTPA） enhanced magnetic resonance （MR） imaging for cirrhosis-related nodules. Methods Nineteen patients who were suspected cirrhosis with lesions of liver were prospectively included for Gd-EOB-DTPA enhanced MR imaging test between Nov. 2011 and Jan. 2013. The hepatobiliary phase （HBP） images were taken in 20 minutes after agents’ injection. The images were diagnosed independently in two groups： group A， including the plain phase and dynamic phase images； group B， including plain phase， dynamic phase， and HBP phase images. The signal intensity （SI） of lesions in HBP images， background liver SI， and background noise standard deviation were measured by using a circular region of interest， then the lesion signal to noise ratio （SNR） and contrast signal to noise ratio （CNR） were calculated. Results Nineteen patients had 25 tumors in all， including 18 hepatocelluar carcinoma （HCC） and 7 regenerative nodule （RN） or dysplastic nodule （DN）， with the diameter ranged from 0.6 cm to 3.2 cm （average 1.3 cm） . Sixteen HCC manifested hypo SI relative to the normal liver， while 2 HCC manifested hyper SI at HBP. Five HCC had cystic necrosis with the necrotic area， and there were no enhancement in artery phase， while performed flocculent enhancement at HBP. Six RN or DN showed hyper SI while another 1 showed iso SI to background liver at HBP. The diagnostic accuracy rates of group A and group B were 80.0% （20/25） and 92.0% （23/25）. SNR of RN or DN at HBP was 132.90±17.21， and of HCC was 114.35±19.27， while the CNR of RN or DN was 19.47±8.20， and of HCC was 112.15±33.52. Conclusion Gd-EOB-DTPA enhanced MR imaging can improve the diagnosis capacity of cirrhosis-related nodules， so as to develop more accurate and reasonable treatment options.
