Assessment of Liver Function With MRI: Where Do We Stand?

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Hepatology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) present a significant global health challenge.
• Accurate liver function assessment is crucial for managing chronic liver disease, HCC, and pre-surgical planning.
• Current clinical methods for assessing liver function are often static and may not capture dynamic changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review recent advancements in using contrast-enhanced MRI for noninvasive liver function assessment.
• To evaluate the efficacy of MRI-based T1 relaxometry in determining liver function.
• To explore the integration of automated image analysis tools in the MRI assessment workflow.

Main Methods:

• Review of recent scientific literature on contrast-enhanced MRI for liver function assessment.
• Analysis of T1 relaxometry techniques and signal intensity changes in MRI.
• Discussion of automated image analysis pipelines, including segmentation and registration.

Main Results:

• Contrast-enhanced MRI provides dynamic, noninvasive assessment of liver function.
• The T1 reduction rate derived from MRI appears to be a highly suitable metric for liver function evaluation.
• MRI offers simultaneous functional and anatomical information about the liver.
• Automated image analysis tools are being developed to streamline the process from image acquisition to analysis.

Conclusions:

• Contrast-enhanced MRI is a powerful tool for assessing liver function dynamically and noninvasively.
• MRI-derived liver function values show significant correlation with established global liver function parameters.
• This technique provides comprehensive functional and anatomical insights, aiding in patient management and treatment monitoring.