Abstract #0113

In Vivo Assessment of Hepatic Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury in Rat Using Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Jerry S. Cheung^1,2, Shu Juan Fan^1,2, April M. Chow^1,2, Edward S. Hui^1,2, Ke Xia Cai^1,2, Kwan Man³, Ed X. Wu^1,2

¹Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China; ²Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China; ³Department of Surgery, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

Hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) occurs during liver transplantation, tumor resection, hemorrhagic shock and veno-occlusive disease, and is a major cause of acute liver failure. IRI in liver is also responsible for early organ failure and increased incidence of both acute and chronic rejection after liver transplantation. This study aims to examine the changes of diffusion measurements by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). The experimental results demonstrated that DTI is useful in identifying hepatic IRI by characterizing the transient changes in mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy.