Value of magnetic resonance imaging-proton density fat fraction in evaluating the degree and distribution characteristics of hepatic steatosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection / 临床肝胆病杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo investigate the value of magnetic resonance imaging-proton density fat fraction （MRI-PDFF） in evaluating hepatic steatosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus （HBV） infection. MethodsThe patients， aged >16 years， who visited the outpatient service or were hospitalized in Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital from January 2018 to December 2022 and were diagnosed with chronic HBV infection were enrolled， and all patients underwent MRI examination of the liver in our hospital. The patients were divided into groups based on the presence or absence of liver cirrhosis， and the consistency in PDFF between different hepatic segments was compared between groups. The Kappa consistency test and intraclass correlation coefficient （ICC） were used for consistency analysis. ResultsA total of 76 patients treated with nucleoside analogues were enrolled， among whom 23 （30.26%） had liver cirrhosis. For all patients， the simple arithmetic average of PDFF fluctuated between 1.49% and 30.93%. According to MRI-PDFF ≥5% as the diagnostic criterion for fatty liver disease， there were 29 patients （38.16%） with fatty liver disease among all patients. For all 76 patients， the simple arithmetic average of PDFF was lower than the weighted average of PDFF for the whole liver， and there was no significant difference between the simple arithmetic average of PDFF， the weighted average of PDFF， and the PDFF values of the left and right lobes of the liver （F=0.39， P=0.76）. The consistency test showed that the PDFF values of each hepatic segment and the left and right lobes of the liver had strong consistency with the weighted average and simple arithmetic average of PDFF， with an ICC of >0.75， but the consistency between the PDFF value of the right lobe and the weighted average of PDFF was higher than that between the PDFF value of the left lobe and the weighted average of PDFF. In the consistency test of differentiating fatty liver disease in patients with liver cirrhosis， there was poor consistency between the PDFF value of segment Ⅶ and the weighted average of PDFF （Kappa=0.39）， with moderate consistency for the left lobe and the Ⅰ， Ⅱ， Ⅲ， Ⅴ， Ⅵ， and Ⅷ segments. For the patients with liver cirrhosis， the lowest consistency was observed between the PDFF value of Ⅶ segment and the weighted average of PDFF for the whole liver， and the highest consistency was observed between the PDFF value of Ⅵ segment and the weighted average of PDFF for the whole liver. For the patients without liver cirrhosis， the lowest consistency was observed between the PDFF value of Ⅱ segment and the weighted average of PDFF for the whole liver， and the highest consistency was observed between the PDFF value of Ⅴ segment and the weighted average of PDFF for the whole liver. ConclusionMRI-PDFF is more comprehensive in evaluating hepatic steatosis in patients with chronic HBV infection， and for the patients with liver cirrhosis， there is poor consistency between the PDFF value of each segment and the weighted average of PDFF.