Evaluating Hepatic Fibrosis in Rat Models by Magnetic Resonance T2 Relaxation / 中国医学影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Purpose To evaluate the feasibility of magnetic resonance T2 values in diagnosing hepatic fibrosis (HF).Materials and M1etdheds The models of HF were induced in rats by repetitive dosing of carbon tetrachloride.The stage of hepatic fibrosis (S),grade of inflammation (G) and degree of fatty liver (F) for the HF model animals and their normal controls were evaluated by pathology.The relationship between T2 values and liver fibrosis was analyzed by using multiple echo gradient spin echo sequences.Results According to the stage of hepatic fibrosis,the HF model rats were staged into S1-S4.The grade of inflammation of the HF model rats was G0 or G1,and the degree of fatty liver was F3 or F4,both of which had no statistical differences among the HF model rats at different fibrosis stages (P＞0.05).The T2 values for all rats including normal control rats in the stage of liver fibrosis from S0 to S4 were (38.27±1.45) ms,(42.08±2.63) ms,(45.93±3.61) ms,(50.23 ± 2.23) ms and (57.79± 5.40) ms,respectively,with a significant difference (F=31.903,P＜0.01).Except the T2 values had no significant difference between the S0 and S 1 stages (P＞0.05),the pairwise comparisons of the T2 values between the rest stages were statistically significant (P＜0.01).The T2 values were positively correlated with the stages of hepatic fibrosis (rs=0.921,P＜0.01).Conclusion The T2 value can quantitatively reflect the degree of hepatic fibrosis.