PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare non-breath-hold T2-weighted turbo spin-echo (TSE) MR imaging with three types of breath-hold T2-weighted MR imaging (breath-hold TSE [BHTSE], half-Fourier single- shot TSE [HASTE], and true-fast imaging with steady-state precession [FISP]) for hepatic lesion detection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: T2-weighted MR images obtained using the above with the four sequences in 38 patients with 53 solid malignant and 90 non-solid benign hepatic lesions were retrospectively analyzed. Images were compared quantitatively (lesion-to-liver contrast-to-noise ratio and lesion detectability) and qualitatively (conspicuity of lesion and artifact). Statistical analysis involved the paired t-test for quantitative evaluation and Wilcoxon's signed rank test for qualitative evaluation. RESULTS: The values of lesion-to-liver contrast-to-noise ratios and lesion conspicuity for solid malignant hepatic lesions were better with non-breath-hold TSE imaging than with the three breath-hold T2-weighted sequences (p<.05); similarly, lesion detectability was higher using the former system (75 %, 68 %) than with breath-hold imaging (57 %, 57%). There was, however, no statistically significant difference in the conspicuity of non-solid benign lesions between non breath-hold and breath-hold sequence (p > .05), and lesion detectability for non-solid benign lesions was similar (94% and 98%, compared with 91% and 96 %). CONCLUSION: In the cases of solid malignant hepatic lesions, the three breath-hold T2-weighted sequences were inferior to non-breath-hold TSE with regard to lesion-to-liver contrast-to-noise ratio and lesion detectability. Non-breath-hold TSE imaging should thus not be replaced by breath-hold T2-weighted imaging.