3D-Liver Quantitative Perfusion Mapping using EGEE Grid with MR-DCE Imaging & MS-325 Blood Pool Contrast Agent

Benjamin Leporq¹, Sorina Camarasu¹, Frank Pilleul^1,2, Olivier Beuf¹

Liver fibrosis is an important cause of mortality and morbidity in patients with chronic liver diseases and can lead to cirrhosis which the complications involve 15,000 deaths per year in France. An early detection and a clinical follow-up of liver fibrosis are still needed. The histology after liver biopsy is the gold standard but has inherent risk, interobserver variability and sampling errors. It has been demonstrated that liver perfusion imaging has the potential to detect and assess vascular modifications associated with liver fibrosis. However, these methods are only ROI-based and regional variations often met in diffuses liver diseases couldnt be observed. This work presents a post-processing method using EGI (European Grid Initiative) for parallel processing to allow 3D liver parametric mapping with a reasonable processing time. Acquisition is founded on MR-DCE imaging technique after injection of the MS-325 blood pool agent.