Spleen Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging as a New Method for Staging Liver Fibrosis in a Piglet Model

OBJECTIVE: To explore spleen hemodynamic alteration in liver fibrosis with dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI), and to determine how to stage liver fibrosis with spleen DCE-MRI parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixteen piglets were prospectively used to model liver fibrosis staged by liver biopsy, and underwent spleen DCE-MRI on 0, 5th, 9th, 16th and 21st weekend after modeling this disease. DCE-MRI parameters including time to peak (TTP), positive enhancement integral (PEI), maximum slope of increase (MSI) and maximum slope of decrease (MSD) of spleen were measured, and statistically analyzed to stage this disease. RESULTS: Spearman's rank correlation tests showed that TTP tended to increase with increasing stages of liver fibrosis (r = 0.647, P<0.001), and that PEI tended to decrease from stage 0 to 4 (r = −0.709, P<0.001). MSD increased slightly from stage 0 to 2 (P>0.05), and decreased from stage 2 to 4 (P<0.05). MSI increased from stage 0 to 1, and decreased from stage 1 to 4 (all P>0.05). Mann-Whitney tests demonstrated that TTP and PEI could classify fibrosis between stage 0 and 1–4, between 0–1 and 2–4, between 0–2 and 3–4, or between 0–3 and 4 (all P<0.01). MSD could discriminate between 0–2 and 3–4 (P = 0.006), or between 0–3 and 4 (P = 0.012). MSI could not differentiate between any two stages. Receiver operating characteristic analysis illustrated that area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of TTP was larger than of PEI for classifying stage ≥1 and ≥2 (AUC = 0.851 and 0.783, respectively). PEI could best classify stage ≥3 and 4 (AUC = 0.903 and 0.96, respectively). CONCLUSION: Spleen DCE-MRI has potential to monitor spleen hemodynamic alteration and classify liver fibrosis stages.