Eleanor F. Cox1,
Antonella Ghezzi2, Andrea Bennet2, Mina Patel2,
Andrew Jackson2, David Harman2, Carolyn Costigan1,
Martin W. James2, Stephen D. Ryder2, Penelope A.
Gowland1, Guru P. Aithal2, I. Neil Guha2,
Susan T. Francis1
1Sir
Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre, University of Nottingham,
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom; 2NIHR Biomedical
Research Unit in Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases, Nottingham University
Hospitals NHS Trust and the University of Nottingham, Nottingham,
Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom
Here we use the MR longitudinal relaxation parameter to study compensated cirrhosis and compare with two different validated and non-invasive techniques. We find measures of liver longitudinal relaxation time (T1) are highly correlated with liver stiffness measured using transient elastography for cirrhotic patients and the enhanced liver fibrosis (ELF) test across both healthy volunteers and cirrhotic patients. All three non-invasive tools are able to stratify disease severity in compensated cirrhosis. Importantly, the heterogeneity of T1 across the whole liver can be seen, which cannot be assessed with either ELF score or stiffness measures.