MR elastography of the liver at 3 T with cine-tagging and bending energy analysis: preliminary results.
OBJECTIVE
To preliminarily evaluate the feasibility and usefulness of MR elastography of the liver at 3 T with cine-tagging and bending energy (BE) analysis for the evaluation of hepatic fibrosis.


METHODS
Twenty-two patients underwent MR elastography with four different cine-tagging grids on the liver (16- or 20-mm sagittal or coronal). Nine images serially obtained during 1-s of exhalation were analyzed to define coordinates of grid intersections. BE values were calculated using the thin-plate spline method. BE values were compared among patient groups with different fibrosis stage thresholds.


RESULTS
In the 22 patients, six had a fibrosis score of F0, one had F1, seven had F2, three had F3, and five had F4. Mean BE value with 16-mm sagittal grid was greater with fibrosis score F0 (1.54 ± 0.63) than with ≥F1 (0.97 ± 0.12, P = 0.013) as well as with ≤F1 (1.48 ± 0.60) than with ≥F2 (0.96 ± 0.36, P = 0.019).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results showed that MR elastography with 16-mm sagittal grid and BE analysis had a potential in discrimination for the patients with moderate or advanced hepatic fibrosis from those with healthy liver or slight fibrosis.
Watanabe
Haruo
H
Department of Radiology, Gifu University Hospital, 1-1 Yanagido, 501-1194, Gifu, Japan. haruwow860@yahoo.co.jp
Kanematsu
Masayuki
M
Kitagawa
Teruhiko
T
Suzuki
Yuriko
Y
Kondo
Hiroshi
H
Goshima
Satoshi
S
Kajita
Kimihiro
K
Bae
Kyongtae T
KT
Hirose
Yoshinobu
Y
Miotani
Seiki
S
Zhou
Xiangrong
X
Fujita
Hiroshi
H
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D019540:Area Under Curve; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D005355:Fibrosis; D006521:Hepatitis, Chronic / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000473:pathology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D019028:Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged