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• Clinical Article •
The diagnostic value of 5.0 T ultra-high-field MRI susceptibility weighted imaging combined with multi-echo T2* mapping in microvascular invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma
LIANG Shuhang  YIN Dawei  FENG Zhichao  LIU Ying  LI Shaopeng  LIU Lianxin 

DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.12.014.


[Abstract] Objective To evaluate the application value of 5.0 T ultra-high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) combined with multi-echo T2* mapping in microvascular invasion (MVI) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Materials and Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 44 HCC patients who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The SWI features of the lesions were analyzed, and the intratumoral susceptibility signal intensity (ITSS) was graded. Additionally, the R2* values of the lesions, peritumoral areas, and background liver tissue were calculated, along with the △R2* values. Statistical analysis was performed to examine the differences in these parameters under different MVI statuses.Results According to pathological standards, the MVI-positive group demonstrated higher ITSS grading and a greater propensity for associated hemorrhage. The R2* values of lesion, peritumoral and ΔR2* values in the MVI-positive and MVI-negative groups were (60.07 ± 25.22) Hz and (52.05 ± 21.51) Hz, (94.32 ± 29.32) Hz and (91.06 ± 30.69) Hz, (0.39 ± 0.40) and (0.13 ± 0.12), respectively. The corresponding P-values were 0.312, 0.740, and < 0.001. The difference in ΔR2* value was statistically significant, and its diagnostic performance was superior to that of ITSS grading (AUC = 0.838, 0.686).Conclusions Based on the 5.0 T ultra-high-field MRI SWI sequence, a high ITSS grade and the △R2* value from the T2* mapping sequence are potential predictive biomarkers for HCC MVI. The combination of these two parameters can enhance diagnostic performance.
[Keywords] ultra-high filed；magnetic resonance imaging；susceptibility weighted imaging；hepatocellular carcinoma；microvascular invasion

LIANG Shuhang1   YIN Dawei2   FENG Zhichao3   LIU Ying1   LI Shaopeng2*   LIU Lianxin1  

1 Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Anhui Provincial Clinical Research Center for Hepatobiliary Diseases, Hefei 230001, China

2 Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230032, China

3 United Imaging Healthcare Institute for Medical Imaging Technology, Shanghai 200025, China

Corresponding author: LI S P, E-mail: 814993570@qq.com

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2025-08-18
Accepted  2025-12-06
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.12.014
DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.12.014.

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