Semi-quantitative assessment of the presence and Child–Pugh class of hepatitis B related cirrhosis by using liver lobe-based dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI

Abstract

To determine whether liver lobe-based DCE-MRI can be used to detect the presence and Child-Pugh class of hepatitis B-related cirrhosis. Fifty-six cirrhotic patients with hepatitis B and 20 healthy participants underwent liver DCE-MRI, and the positive enhancement integral (PEI), time to peak (TTP), maximum slope of increase (MSI) and maximum slope of decrease (MSD) of the left lateral liver lobe (LLL), left medial liver lobe (LML), right liver lobe (RL), and caudate lobe (CL) were measured and analysed statistically to evaluate cirrhosis. TTP values of the LLL, LML, RL and CL were positively correlated with the Child-Pugh class of cirrhosis (r=0.452 to 0.55, all p<0.05). PEI values of the LLL, LML, RL and CL, as well as the MSI of the CL and the MSD of the RL, were inversely correlated with the Child-Pugh class (r=-0.349 to -0.72, all p<0.05). PEI values of the LLL and CL, or TTP values of the RL had the most area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.99 for identifying the presence of liver cirrhosis. The PEI of the RL had the largest AUC of 0.975 and 0.78 for distinguishing the Child-Pugh class A of cirrhosis from class B-C and class A-B of cirrhosis from class C, respectively. Liver lobe-based DCE-MRI parameters are associated with the presence and Child-Pugh class of hepatitis B-related cirrhosis.