Abstract #0446

Assessing metabolism and function of normothermically perfused ex vivo livers by multi-nuclear MR imaging and spectroscopy

Liam AJ Young¹, Carlo DL Ceresa², Jack Miller³, Ladislav Valkovic^1,4, Daniel Voyce⁵, Elizabeth M Tunnicliffe¹, Jane Ellis¹, Damian J Tyler³, Peter J Friend², Constantin C Coussios⁶, and Christopher T Rodgers^1,7

¹Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research (OCMR), University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ²Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ³Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ⁴Department of Imaging Methods, Institute of Measurement Science, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia, ⁵OrganOx Ltd, Oxford, United Kingdom, ⁶Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ⁷Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Liver transplantation is the only cure for end-stage liver disease. Unfortunately, 20% of patients die waiting for a donor. New techniques for preserving transplant livers, such as normothermic machine perfusion (NMP), provide an opportunity to utilise ‘marginal’ (currently discarded) donated livers if their viability can be assessed accurately. We present initial results from a CE-marked NMP system that we adapted for use in an MRI scanner. We demonstrate the power of NMP-MRI to assess structure and metabolism in a freshly donated pig liver, dynamically over a 10-hour period. Our protocol includes ¹H imaging, ³¹P spectroscopy, and hyperpolarised ¹³C spectroscopy.

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