Abstract: Objective To investigate the correlation of recurrence time after surgical resection with lipid content and pseudocapsule magnetic resonance (MR) features in small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods Patients receiving operation for small HCC in our hospital from February 2011 to November 2016 were followed up, who had undergone dynamic enhanced MR scan within 1 month before operation. Thirty-four patients with HCC recurrence or without HCC recurrence during 30-month follow-up were enrolled, who were divided into >30 months group, 10~30 months group and <10 months group. Double echo sequence was used to detect lipid content and the signal characteristics of pseudocapsule were observed in preoperative MR images. Statistical analysis was performed. Results Among the patients, 15 were with >30 months recurrence time, 12 were with 10~30 months recurrence time, and 7 were with <10 months recurrence time. In<10 months group, no lipids were detected in the lesions. However, in the other two groups, 10 cases had lipid content in lesions and 17 cases had no lipid content in lesions. In <10 months group, the pseudocapsules of lesions showed short, equal, long T1 and short, equal T2 signals. In 10~30 months group, the pseudocapsules of lesions could be characterized by short, equal, long T1 and T2 signals. Conclusion Lesions containing lipid and pseudocapsule showing long T2 signal in MR indicate longer disease-free survival time after surgical resection.

Key words: Small HCC, Recurrence time, MR