Abstract #4076

Sensitivity of Intrahepatic Volumetric Strain Measured by MR Elastography to the Alteration of Portal Pressure in Patients with Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt (TIPPS)

Sebastian Hirsch¹, Thomas J. Kroencke¹, Jing Guo², Rolf Reiter¹, Sebastian Papazoglou¹, Patrick Asbach¹, Juergen Braun³, Ingolf Sack¹

¹Department of Radiology, Charit - Universittsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany; ²Department of Radiology, Charite - University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany; ³Institute of Medical Informatics, Charite - University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany

3D vector field MRE was performed in 13 patients with hepatic portal hypertension before and after interventional TIPPS placement in order to assess the sensitivity of volumetric strain and shear strain to hepatic pressure. The method was validated in an excised sheep liver at artificial hepatic pressure levels. In both studies, volumetric strain was found to decrease with increasing pressure, whereas shear strain appears to be invariant w.r.t pressure changes. In patients, the averaged increase of volumetric strain due to TIPS was 21&[plusmn]13, P=1.38∙10-5. Furthermore, we found a strong correlation between the hepatic pressure decrease and volumetric strain (R^2=0.776).