title: Hepatic sarcoidosis: MR appearances in patients with chronic liver disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the MR appearances of hepatic sarcoidosis in patients with chronic liver disease and correlate the results with clinical stage of disease as measured with the Mayo end-stage liver disease (MELD) score.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty patients with chronic liver disease and histopathological diagnosis of hepatic sarcoidosis who underwent MR imaging were included in this study. Two abdominal radiologists retrospectively reviewed all images for the presence of cirrhosis, imaging pattern of the liver, intrahepatic biliary dilatation, presence of areas of parenchymal atrophy, presence of splenic nodules and lymphadenopathy. Imaging findings were correlated with the MELD score.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the patients, 14/20 had imaging findings of cirrhosis, 9/20 had a large macronodular pattern of liver cirrhosis and 5/20 had a diffuse pattern of liver cirrhosis. Peripheral wedge-shaped areas of parenchymal atrophy were observed in 10 patients. The combination of a central macronodular pattern and peripheral atrophy was observed in 9/20 patients. The pattern of cirrhosis had statistically significant correlation with the presence of wedge-shaped areas of parenchymal atrophy (p<0.005). No statistically significant difference was revealed between the clinical score of patients who had imaging findings consistent with cirrhosis and those who did not.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MR imaging appearances of chronic sarcoid liver disease are diverse and do not appear to correlate with severity of clinical disease. Large central regenerative nodules and wedge-shaped areas of peripheral parenchymal atrophy are frequent findings and may help to suggest the diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7510, USA.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramalho
authors.forename: Rafael O P
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: de Campos
authors.forename: Vasco
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Heredia
authors.forename: Andreia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roque
authors.forename: Georgeta
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vaidean
authors.forename: Richard C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Semelka
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D058625:End Stage Liver Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012507:Sarcoidosis / Q000473:pathology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index