Evaluation of fibrosis in liver cirrhosis by superparamagnetic iron oxide(SPIO)-enhanced MR imaging: does the radiological non-invasive fibrosis index correlate with the laboratory non-invasive fibrosis index?

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the correlation between the radiological non-invasive hepatic fibrosis index (RNHFI), as determined by SPIO-enhanced MRI, and the laboratory non-invasive hepatic fibrosis index. Materials and Methods: Patients (99 total: 61 men and 38 women; mean age: 58 years) who underwent SPIO-enhanced MRI (1.5T) during 5 years included. These patients were subdivided into a liver cirrhosis group (LCG) and a non-liver cirrhosis group (non-LCG). Using PACS view, we measured the RNHFI (mean standard deviation of hepatic signal intensity (SD), noise-corrected coefficient of variation (CV)) of three ROIs in the liver parenchyma by SPIO-enhanced MRI. The laboratory non-invasive hepatic fibrosis index (AST-platelet ratio index (APRI)) of all patients was calculated from the laboratory data. We compared the RNHFI and APRI of LCG with those of non-LC group using Student’s t-test. A bivariate correlation was performed to investigate the relationship between the RNHFI and APRI in the LCG. Results: For the LCG, mean values of SD and CV by SPIO-enhanced MRI were 10.3±3.7 and 0.19±0.08, respectively. For the non-LCG, mean values of SD and CV were 6.5±1.6 and 0.08±0.05, respectively. The mean APRI of the LCG and the non-LCG were 2.04±1.7 and 0.32±0.32, respectively. The RNHFI and APRI