Detection of small brain metastases at 3 T: comparing the diagnostic performances of contrast-enhanced T1-weighted SPACE, MPRAGE, and 2D FLASH imaging

The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic performance of contrast-enhanced T1-weighted sampling perfection with application-optimized contrasts using different flip angle evolutions (SPACE), magnetization-prepared rapid gradient-echo (MPRAGE), and two-dimensional (2D) fast low angle shot (FLASH) for the detection of small brain metastases.Twelve patients who had brain metastases less than 10 mm in diameter were enrolled. The diagnostic performance was evaluated using alternative free-response receiver operating characteristic analysis. Sensitivity and positive predictive value were also calculated.The mean Az and sensitivities of SPACE for all observers were significantly higher than those of MPRAGE and 2D FLASH.