Relationship between liver enhancement in hepatobiliary phase of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid-enhanced MRI and liver function / 中华放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the effect of liver function on liver enhancement in hepatobiliary phase of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid(Gd-EOB-DTPA)-enhanced MRI.Methods Sixty-seven patients who suffered from cirrhosis and received enhanced MRI with Gd-EOB-DTPA were retrospectively analyzed,and divided into three subgroups according to ChildPugh score(45 patients in group A,20 in group B,5 in group C).All the individuals of both groups had MRI before injection,and hepatobiliary phase images were obtained at 5,10,and 20 minutes after bolus administration of Gd-EOB-DTPA.The relative enhancement(RE) was calculated by dividing the signal intensity of liver(SI) at t min after injection(SIt) by precontrast SI(SI0).The total serum bilirubin level(TB),serum albumin level(Alb) and prothrombin time(PT) were recorded.The one-way ANOVA was used to compare the RE among three groups at 5,10 and 20 minutes.SNK was used for further pairwise comparison.The effect of liver function on RE was assessed with the generalized linear model.Pearson correlation coefficients were measured between each biochemical test result(TB,Alb,PT) and RE at different time points.Results The RE at 5,10 and 20 minutes were 1.59±0.20,1.65±0.22,1.69±0.25 of group A; 1.47± 0.14,1.48±0.18,1.50±0.22 of group B,1.35±0.07,1.27±0.06,1.26±0.06 of group C.There were statistically significant differences of RE among groups at 5,10 and 20 minutes(F=5.854,11.207,9.666,P＜0.01).Statistically pairwise comparison differences of RE were found between group A and C at 5,10 and 20 minutes(P＜0.01),between B and C at 10 and 20 minutes(P＜0.05),between A and B at 10 minutes(P＜ 0.05).There were statistically significant differences of TB,Alb and PT among groups(P＜0.01).RE at 10 and 20 minutes had moderate negative correlation with TB(r=-0.483,-0.500; P＜0.01),low negative correlation with PT(r=-0.326,-0.351;P＜0.01) and weak positive correlation with Alb(r=0.290,0.292;P＜0.05).Conclusions There are differences of RE among patients with different liver function,and the RE is associated with TB,Alb and PT.Thus,it may allow us to estimate the liver function.