Philippe Garteiser1,
Gaspard D'Assignies1, 2, Helena S. Leitao1,
3, Ramin S. Sahebjavaher4, Simon Auguste Lambert1,
Feryel Mouri5, Valrie Vilgrain, 12, Bernard E. Van
Beers, 12, Ralph Sinkus1
1U773-CRB3,
INSERM, Universite Sorbonne Paris-Cite, Paris, 75018, France; 2Service
de Radiologie, AP-HP Hopital Beaujon, Clichy, 92110, France; 3Center
for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, 3004-517,
Portugal; 4University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; 5Service
d'hepatologie, AP-HP Hopital Beaujon, Clichy, 92110, France
Accurate noninvasive methods for the determination of chronic liver inflammation are still lacking in clinical practice, despite the high relevance to patient care. In the present work, multi-frequency MR elastography (28, 56 and 84Hz) was carried out on 26 patients with viral hepatitis. Results were confronted to the inflammation grade obtained from histology of tissue biopsies. Statistical analysis revealed a strong dependence of the dispersion property of the wavelength to inflammation. This trend was visible independently from the variations caused by fibrosis. Hence, the dispersion of the mechanical wavelength obtained by MRE may represent a novel marker of hepatic inflammation.
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