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LI-RADS categories: concepts, definitions, and criteria

Abdominal Radiology volume 43, pages 101–110 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

The Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) was created to provide a standardized way to both assess and communicate the likelihood of benignity or malignancy of observations seen in patients at risk for development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The LI-RADS categories allow radiologists to convey the full spectrum of concern for malignancy, from definitely benign to definitely HCC. Additional categories are available for non-categorizable observations, observations that are concerning for a non-HCC malignancy, and the presence of tumor in vein. The goal of this paper is to discuss the LI-RADS categories, including criteria for each category, and point out changes to the categories from prior versions of LI-RADS.

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Affiliations

  1. Liver Imaging Group, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    Cynthia Santillan & Claude Sirlin

  2. Department of Radiology, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, USA

    Victoria Chernyak

Authors
  1. Cynthia Santillan
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  2. Victoria Chernyak
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  3. Claude Sirlin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cynthia Santillan.

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Funding

This study was not supported by a grant.

Conflicts of interest

Cynthia Santillan and Victoria Chernyak declared that they have no conflict of interest. Claude Sirlin receives grant funding from Bayer, Guerbet, Siemens, General Electric, Supersonic, and Arterys. He has consulting and service agreements with Alexion, AstraZeneca, Bioclinica, BMS, Bracco, Celgene, Fibrogen, Galmed, Genentech, Genzyme, Gilead, Icon, Intercept, Isis, Janssen, NuSirt, Perspectum, Pfizer, Profil, Sanofi, Shire, Synageva, Tobira, Takeda, and Virtual Scopics.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Santillan, C., Chernyak, V. & Sirlin, C. LI-RADS categories: concepts, definitions, and criteria. Abdom Radiol 43, 101–110 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-017-1334-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-017-1334-x

Keywords

  • Hepatocellular carcinoma
  • Liver
  • MRI
  • CT
  • LI-RADS
  • Categories