MRI Extracellular Volume Fraction in Liver Fibrosis—A Comparison of Different Time Points and Blood Pool Measurements

Background Extracellular volume (ECV) correlates with the degree of liver fibrosis. Purpose To analyze the performance of liver MRI‐based ECV evaluations with different blood pool measurements at different time points. Study Type Prospective. Sample 73 consecutive patients (n = 31 females, mean age 56 years) with histopathology‐proven liver fibrosis. Field Strength/Sequence 3T acquisition within 90 days of biopsy, including shortened modified look–locker inversion recovery T1 mapping. Assessment Polygonal regions of interest were manually drawn in the liver, aorta, vena cava, and in the main, left and right portal vein on four slices before and after Gd‐DOTA administration at 5/10/15 minutes. ECV was calculated 1) on one single slice on portal bifurcation level, and 2) averaged over all four slices. Statistical Tests Parameters were compared between patients with fibrosis grades F0‐2 and F3‐F4 with the Mann–Whitney U and fishers exact test. ROC analysis was used to assess the performance of the parameters to predict F3‐4 fibrosis. A P‐value