Diagnosis of Cirrhosis with MRI: Is Magnetization Transfer Contrast Worth Pursuing?

Andrew B. Rosenkrantz¹, Pippa Storey¹, Ben Niver¹, Cristina Hajdu², Vivian S. Lee¹

8 patients with liver cirrhosis and 8 volunteers underwent liver MRI at 1.5T that included repeated applications of an adjustable magnetization-transfer contrast (MTC) sequence, with the MT pre-pulse offset frequency varying from 1000Hz to 3000Hz and the MT pre-pulse flip angle varying from 100 to 900. The magnetization transfer ratio measured over the right lobe showed substantial overlap between healthy and cirrhotic liver for all assessed MTC sequences, with none of the differences being significant (p-values from 0.092 to 0.819). Our data suggests that, unlike the results of previous studies, MTC imaging is unable to differentiate healthy and cirrhotic liver.