MR Imagings of Chronic Acquired Hepatic Failure

ABSTRACT

Neuroimaging of the brain is useful diagnostic evaluation of patients with hepatic encephalopathy msofar as it is able to exclude other causes of abno rmal mental status. Recently, changes of basal ganglia on MRI characteriwd by increased signal mtensity on Tl-weighted images were reported m patients with liver cirrhosis. Signal abnormality involves mainly the globus pallidus and seems to be specific for patients with chronic liver disease. Its pathogenesis and significance are obscure, and no pathological reports have been made. We experienced 3 cases of Chronic acquired hepatic failure whose MRI showed increased signal in-tensity in the basal ganglia on Tl-weighted imaging. Our findings su-ggest that basal ganglia signal abnormality could arise as a marker of brain impairment related to deposition of an unidentified paramagnetic substance or altered intracellular water relaxation.