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Liver lesion detection and characterization: Role of diffusion‐weighted imaging
Author(s) -
Galea Nicola,
Cantisani Vito,
Taouli Bachir
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.23947
Subject(s) - diffusion mri , lesion , diffusion , medicine , radiology , characterization (materials science) , diffusion imaging , magnetic resonance imaging , nuclear medicine , pathology , materials science , physics , nanotechnology , thermodynamics
Diffusion‐weighted imaging (DWI) plays an emerging role for the assessment of focal and diffuse liver diseases. This growing interest is due to that fact that DWI is a noncontrast technique with inherent high contrast resolution, with promising results for detection and characterization of focal liver lesions. Recent advances in diffusion image quality have also added interest to this technique in the abdomen. The purpose of this review is to describe the current clinical roles of DWI for the detection and characterization of focal liver lesions, and to review pitfalls, limitations, and future directions of DWI for assessment of focal liver disease. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2013;37:1260–1276. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.