Quantitative liver MRI including extracellular volume fraction for non-invasive quantification of liver fibrosis: a prospective proof-of-concept study

The contrast agent remains strictly extracellular and does not enter parenchymal or non-parenchymal hepatic cells. [...]ECV strictly mirrors the volume of the deposited extracellular matrix. Of note, different pathological conditions (eg, cellular oedema and cholestasis) are drawbacks of elastographic techniques (transient, shear wave and MR), but do not affect ECV estimations. [...]ECV minimises systematic errors in image acquisition and enables better comparison of scans at different time points, which were acquired with different field strengths and across different vendor platforms, which is not the case for T1 and T2 relaxation times. [...]ECV not only diagnose fibrosis but also might quantify response to treatment during follow-up.