Thomas C. Lauenstein1,2, Khalil Salman2, Puneet Sharma2, Roger Moreira3, Diego R. Martin2
1Radiology, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany; 2Radiology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; 3Pathology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
We evaluated the accuracy of gadolinium-enhanced MRI for the quantification of cirrhosis and acute hepatic inflammation. 25 normal subjects, 25 patients with intermediate and 25 patients with severe cirrhosis were studied. Gadolinium enhanced T1w gradient echo sequences were acquired in arterial and late venous phases within 14 days of biopsy and histopathologic tissue analysis. MRI analysis for cirrhotic changes included the grading of reticular hyperintensity of liver tissue on the delayed phase images. Patchy enhancement patterns on the arterial phase images were evaluated for acute hepatic inflammation. An MRI based scoring for cirrhosis and acute hepatitis correlated well with histopathology.