Abstract:
Objective To investigate the hepatobiliary phase (HBP) scan time for the assessment of liver function using T1 mapping on Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Methods Totally, 124 patients with chronic viral hepatitis B and cirrhosis were classified into three groups as follows: liver cirrhosis with Child-Pugh A (LCA, n=63), Child-Pugh B (LCB, n=47), and Child-Pugh C (LCC, n=14). Twenty-three healthy volunteers with normal liver function (NLF) were enrolled as control group. All patients underwent Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI. To obtain T1 mapping, Look-Locker sequences before and at 10, 15, and 20 minutes after Gd-EOB-DTPA administration were acquired. T1 relaxation time of liver was measured on T1 mapping, reduction rate of T1 relaxation time (ΔT1), and increase of relaxation rate (ΔR1) between pre- and post-enhancement were calculated. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was performed to compare T1 relaxation time, ΔT1, and ΔR1 among different liver function groups and different time points. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to determine the predictive effect of these parameters in discriminating NLF-LCA and LCB-LCC.
Results T1 relaxation time of NLF, LCA, and LCB groups progressively increased from 10 min, 15 min to 20 min post-contrast, ΔT1 and ΔR1 showed a constant decrease from 10 min to 20 min. T1 relaxation time of LCC gradually decreased and ΔT1 increased from 10 min to 20 min. T1 relaxation time, ΔT1 and ΔR1 showed significant difference among different time points (F=23.125, 28.061, 67.421, P=0.000) and different groups (F=82.686, 49.041, 70.963, P=0.000). The areas under the ROC curve of T110 min, T115 min, and T120 min for discriminating NLF-LCA and LCB-LCC were 0.959, 0.949, and 0.952, respectively. The areas under the ROC curve of ΔT110 min, ΔT115 min, and ΔT120 min were 0.880, 0.879, and 0.894, respectively. The areas under ROC curve of ΔR110 min, ΔR115 min, and ΔR120 min were 0.942, 0.934, and 0.939, respectively. No significantly difference (P>0.05) was found among the three time points.
Conclusions The 10 min HBP is feasible for assessing liver function using T1 mapping on Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI.