Abstract: objective To evaluate the predictive value of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid(Gd-EOB-DTPA) 3.0T enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for microvascular invasion (MVI) in young and middle-aged patients with small hepatocellular carcinoma(SHCC) . Methods 70 young and middle-aged patients with small hepatocellular carcinoma were divided into MVI group (N=21) and non-MVI group (N=49) . All patients underwent preoperative univariate analysis of qualitative and quantitative parameters on Gd-EOB-DTPA MRI enhancement, and multivariate Logistic regression was performed with parameters that differed between groups as independent variables, then the ROC curve was drawn for the parameters with predictive value, and the independent risk factors of MVI were found out and analyzed them statistically. Results there were significant differences between MVI Group and non-MVI group in the The qualitative parameters of tumor shape, tumor margin, incompelete pseudocapsule, peritumoral hypointensity in hepatobiliary phase and peritumoral enhancement in artery phase(P<0.05) The ADC values of tumors in quantitative parameters between MVI Group and non-MVI group were statistically significant (P<0.05);Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that low ADC value, peritumoral hypointensity in hepatobiliary phase and peritumoral enhancement were the independent risk factors of MVI in young and middle-aged patients with SHCC (P<0.05) . Conclusion Gd-EOB-DTPA enhanced MRI is valuable in predicting the presence of MVI in young and middle-aged patients with SHCC.