Assessment of T2-weighted Image Quality at Prostate MRI in Patients with and Those without Intramuscular Injection of Glucagon.

Purpose To assess whether administration of intramuscular (IM) glucagon improves T2-weighted image quality at multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) of the prostate. Materials and Methods In this Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant single-center study, the authors retrospectively analyzed radiology reports from 3960 mpMRI examinations (2495 after exclusions) performed between September 2013 and September 2019 and performed outcome comparisons and semiquantitative image assessment of axial T2-weighted images from 120 consecutive mpMRI examinations performed between May 2015 and February 2016. Three experienced radiologists blinded to administration of IM glucagon assessed images using a five-point Likert scale (5 = no motion or blur) for overall image quality, anatomic delineation (prostate capsule, rectum, and lymph nodes), and identification of benign prostatic hyperplasia nodules. Wilcoxon rank sum and χ 2 tests were used to assess quantitative parameters. Results The number of mpMRI radiology reports (599 examinations performed with glucagon; 1896, without glucagon) mentioning blur or motion were similar between groups ( P = .82). Regression analysis of semiquantitative image quality assessments of T2-weighted images from mpMRI examinations (60 performed with glucagon; 60, without glucagon) demonstrated that images with glucagon were more likely to receive higher scores (4 or 5 rating) than those without glucagon only when the rectum ( P = .001) and lymph nodes ( P = .01) were evaluated, not when the prostatic capsule, benign prostatic hyperplasia nodules, or overall image quality was evaluated. No evidence of differences was found in identified Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) lesions or targeted-biopsy Gleason scores. Conclusion Administration of IM glucagon did not improve T2-weighted image quality in prostate MRI examinations and showed similar PI-RADS scores and biopsy yields compared with examinations without glucagon. Keywords: MRI, Genital/Reproductive, Urinary, Prostate, Oncology, Observer Performance © RSNA, 2023 Online supplemental material is available for this article . See also commentary by Eberhardt in this issue.