Enhanced Laws textures: A potential MRI surrogate marker of hepatic fibrosis in a murine model

To compare enhanced Laws textures derived from parametric proton density (PD) maps to other MRI surrogate markers (T₂, PD, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC)) in assessing degrees of liver fibrosis in an ex vivo murine model of hepatic fibrosis imaged using 11.7T MRI.

This animal study was IACUC approved. Fourteen male, C57BL/6 mice were divided into control and experimental groups. The latter were fed a 3,5-dicarbethoxy-1,4-dihydrocollidine (DDC) supplemented diet to induce hepatic fibrosis. Ex vivo liver specimens were imaged using an 11.7T scanner, from which the parametric PD, T₂, and ADC maps were generated from spin-echo pulsed field gradient and multi-echo spin-echo acquisitions. A sequential enhanced Laws texture analysis was applied to the PD maps: automated dual-clustering algorithm, optimal thresholding algorithm, global grayscale correction, and Laws texture features extraction. Degrees of fibrosis were independently assessed by digital image analysis (a.k.a. %Area Fibrosis). Scatterplot graphs comparing enhanced Laws texture features, T₂, PD, and ADC values to degrees of fibrosis were generated and correlation coefficients were calculated.

Hepatic fibrosis and the enhanced Laws texture features were strongly correlated with higher %Area Fibrosis associated with higher Laws textures (r=0.89). Without the proposed enhancements, only a moderate correlation was detected between %Area Fibrosis and unenhanced Laws texture features (r=0.70). Correlation also existed between %Area Fibrosis and ADC (r=0.86), PD (r=0.65), and T₂ (r=0.66).

Higher degrees of hepatic fibrosis are associated with increased Laws textures. The proposed enhancements could improve the accuracy of Laws texture features significantly.