Effect of Hepatic Iron Deposition on DWI Measurements in Liver Cirrhosis

Hersh Chandarana¹, Kinh Gian Do¹, Ely Felker¹, Cristina Hajdu², Jens Jensen¹, Bachir Taouli¹

We assessed the effect of hepatic iron deposition on liver signal intensity and apparent diffusion coefficient on diffusion-weighted images in cirrhotic patients. Our preliminary results show that severe iron deposition significantly lowers liver signal intensity on DWI for b0 and b500, and also decreases apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) without reaching significance. The effect of hepatic iron deposition should be taken into account when using ADC for the diagnosis of liver fibrosis/cirrhosis.