Evaluation of Fibrosis in Liver Cirrhosis by Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide (SPIO)-Enhanced MR Imaging: Does the Radiological Non-Invasive Fibrosis Index Correlate with the Laboratory Non-Invasive Fibrosis Index?

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To evaluate the correlation between the radiological non-invasive hepatic fibrosis index (RNHFI), as determined by SPIO-enhanced MRI, and the laboratory non-invasive hepatic fibrosis index. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients (99 total 61 men and 38 women; mean age 58 years) who underwent SPIO-enhanced MRI (1.5T) during 5 years included. These patients were subdivided into a liver cirrhosis group (LCG) and a non-liver cirrhosis group (non-LCG). Using PACS view, we measured the RNHFI (mean standard deviation of hepatic signal intensity (SD), noise-corrected coefficient of variation (CV)) of three ROIs in the liver parenchyma by SPIO-enhanced MRI. The laboratory non-invasive hepatic fibrosis index (AST-platelet ratio index (APRI)) of all patients was calculated from the laboratory data. We compared the RNHFI and APRI of LCG with those of non-LC group using Student's t-test. A bivariate correlation was performed to investigate the relationship between the RNHFI and APRI in the LCG. RESULTS: For the LCG, mean values of SD and CV by SPIO-enhanced MRI were 10.3 +/-3.7 and 0.19+/-0.08, respectively. For the non-LCG, mean values of SD and CV were 6.5+/-1.6 and 0.08+/-0.05, respectively. The mean APRI of the LCG and the non-LCG were 2.04+/-1.7 and 0.32+/-0.32, respectively. The RNHFI and APRI were significantly different between both groups (p<05). For the LCG, the bivariate correlation between SD and APRI revealed a statistically significant positive correlation (r=0.5, p<0.001). In both groups, there was no statistically significant correlation between CV and APRI. CONCLUSION: A measurement of SD can be a simple and useful method for the evaluation of hepatic fibrosis.