Peter Caravan1, Ritika Uppal1, Bryan Fuchs2, Alexander Guimaraes1, George Dai1, Tsutomo Fujii2, Kenneth Tanabe2
1Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA; 2Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Liver fibrosis occurs in advanced stages of chronic liver diseases, and proper staging of fibrosis is essential for prognosis, surveillance, and treatment decisions. Fibrosis is characterized by excess deposition of type I collagen in the parenchyma. We used a rat model of liver fibrosis and imaged fibrotic and control animals before and after administration of a type I collagen-targeted Gd-based contrast agent. Significant signal enhancement was observed in the fibrotic animals compared to the controls and this correlated with quantitative measures of total liver collagen and histological staining for fibrosis.