Affiliations: [a]
Department of Radiology, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| [b]
Department of Radiology, Inselspital Tiefenau, Bern, Switzerland
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Ute Probst, Department of Radiology, University Hospital Regensburg, 93042 Regensburg, Germany. Tel.: +49 941 944 7446; E-mail: ute.probst@ukr.de.
Abstract: PURPOSE:Contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is able to assess liver function by characteristic changes of signal intensity (SI).The aim was to evaluate dynamic contrast-enhanced SI-indices of the abdominal aorta, portal vein and liver. METHODS:72 patients underwent Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI and a 13C-methacetin-based liver breath test (13C-MBT) for evaluation of liver function. Region-of-interest measurements in the liver, abdominal aorta and portal vein during native, arterial (AP), late arterial (LAP), portal venous (PVP) and hepatobiliary phase (HBP) were applied to analyze SI-indices in T1-weighted volume-interpolated breath-hold examination (VIBE) sequences with fat-suppression and relative enhancement (RE) analysis was performed. RESULTS:The liver (p < 0.001), the portal vein (p < 0.001) and abdominal aorta (p = 0.002) showed significant decrease of REs with decreasing liver function. An increasing trend between logarithmic values of 13C-MBT and REs of hepatic parenchyma (HBP; r = 0.662, p < 0.001), portal vein (PVP; r = 0.532, p < 0.001) and abdominal aorta (PVP; r = 0.421, p < 0.001) was observed. CONCLUSIONS:RE measurements of the hepatic parenchyma proofed to be a trustable evaluation method for liver function evaluation. In accordance with liver function, changes of REs in the portal vein and abdominal aorta occur.
