title: Evaluation of liver fibrosis and hepatic venous pressure gradient with MR elastography in a novel swine model of cirrhosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the correlation among MR elastography (MRE) measured liver stiffness (LS), liver fibrosis, and hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) in a swine model of cirrhosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three swine served as controls, and liver fibrosis was induced in eight swine by transarterial embolization. LS and HVPG were obtained at baseline and 4 weeks (prenecropsy) following induction of liver fibrosis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four weeks following the induction of liver cirrhosis, experimental animals developed an increase in HVPG of 8.0±6.4 mmHg compared with 0.3±1.2 mmHg for controls (P=0.08). Over the same timeframe, mean MRE-measured LS increased 0.82±0.39 kPa for experimental swine and 0.1±0.05 kPa for controls (P=0.01). A positive correlation was observed between increases in HVPG and LS (ρ=0.682; P=0.02). Liver fibrosis was measured on explanted livers at 4 weeks and yielded mean fibrosis scores of 2.8 for experimental animals and 0 for controls (P=0.0016). A positive correlation was observed between higher LS and liver fibrosis (ρ=0.884; P=0.0003).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MRE is a reliable noninvasive technique to measure LS in a swine model of cirrhosis. Significant positive correlations were observed between LS and HVPG as well as LS and fibrosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Steven Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Mohamed E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Abdelsalam
authors.forename: Samer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Harmoush
authors.forename: Joe E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Ensor
authors.forename: Justin A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Chetta
authors.forename: Ken-Pin
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: R Jason
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Stafford
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Madoff
authors.forename: Rony
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Avritscher
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D017082:Portal Pressure; D012372:ROC Curve; D011897:Random Allocation; D012016:Reference Values; D034421:Sus scrofa; D013552:Swine
keywords: HVPG; MR elastography; liver stiffness