Assessment of liver cirrhosis for patients with Child's A classification before hepatectomy using dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI

To determine the feasibility of semi-quantitative haemodynamic parameters derived from dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess liver fibrosis. Seventy-five patients with Child's A classification (males/females=24/51; average age, 58 years; range, 30–80 years) received DCE-MRI 3 days prior to hepatectomy. Semi-quantitative haemodynamic parameters, including the wash-in slope, wash-out slope, and time-to-peak, were calculated from DCE-MRI data. Liver fibrosis of the resected non-tumour liver was graded pathologically from F0 (no fibrosis) to F6 (cirrhosis) in the regions corresponding to those assessed by DCE-MRI. The wash-out slope showed higher interobserver and intra-observer reliabilities than the wash-in slope and time-to-peak. There was a significant positive correlation between the wash-out slope and pathological grade of fibrosis (Spearman's correlation coefficient: r=0.5331, p