Quantitative assessment of hepatic fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B and C: T1 mapping on Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced liver magnetic resonance imaging

AIM: To assess the accuracy of Look-Locker on gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA)-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for staging liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B/C (CHB/C). METHODS: We prospectively included 109 patients with CHB or CHC who underwent a 3.0-Tesla MRI examination, including T1-weighted and Look-Locker sequences for T1 mapping. Hepatocyte fractions (HeF) and relaxation time reduction rate (RE) were measured for staging liver fibrosis. A receiver operating characteristic analysis using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to compare the diagnostic performance in predicting liver fibrosis between HeF and RE. RESULTS: A total of 73 patients had both pathological results and MRI information. The number of patients in each fibrosis stage was evaluated semiquantitatively according to the METAVIR scoring system: F0, n = 23 (31.5%); F1, n = 19 (26.0%); F2, n = 13 (17.8%); F3, n = 6 (8.2%), and F4, n = 12 (16.4%). HeF by EOB enhancement imaging was significantly correlated with fibrosis stage (r = -0.808, P < 0.05). AUC values for diagnosis of any (≥ F1), significant (≥ F2) or advanced (≥ F3) fibrosis, and cirrhosis (F4) using HeF were 0.837 (0.733-0.913), 0.890 (0.795-0.951), 0.957 (0.881-0.990), and 0.957 (0.882-0.991), respectively. HeF measurement was more accurate than use of RE in establishing liver fibrosis staging, suggesting that calculation of HeF is a superior noninvasive liver fibrosis staging method. CONCLUSION: A T1 mapping-based HeF method is an efficient diagnostic tool for the staging of liver fibrosis.