Liver Biliary Function Evaluation on a 1.5T Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scan by T1 Reduction Rate Assessment Using Variable-Flip-Angle Sequences

Magnetic resonance (MR) relaxometry is an absolute and reproducible quantitative method, compared with signal intensity for the evaluation of liver biliary function. This is obtainable by the T1 reduction rate (T1RR), as it carries a smaller systematic error than the pre/post contrast agent T1 measurement. We aimed to develop and test an MR T1 relaxometry tool tailored for the evaluation of liver T1RR after gadolinium ethoxybenzyl-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid administration on 1.5T MR.

In vitro/vivo (liver) T1RR values with two 3D FLASH variable-flip-angle sequences were calculated by a MATLAB algorithm. In vitro measurements were done by 2 physicists, in consensus. The prospective in vivo study was approved by the local ethical committee and performed on 13 normal/26 cirrhotic livers. A supplemental test in 5 normal/5 cirrhotic livers, out of the studied series, was done to compare the results of our method (without B1 inhomogeneity correction) and those of a standardized commercial tool (with B1 inhomogeneity correction). All in vivo evaluations were performed by 2 radiologists with 7 years of experience in abdominal imaging. Open-source Java-based software ImageJ was used to draw the free-hand regions of interest on liver section and for the measurement of hepatic T1RR values. The T1RR values of each group of patients were compared to assess statistically significant differences. All statistical analyses were performed with IBM-SPSS Statistics. In vivo evaluations, the intrareader and interreader reliability was assessed by intraclass correlation coefficient.

Our method showed good accuracy in evaluating in vitro T1RR with a maximum percentage error of 9% (constant at various time points) with T1 values in the 200- to 1400-millisecond range. In vivo, a high concordance between the T1RR evaluated with the proposed method and that calculated from the standardized commercial software was verified ( P < 0.05). The median T1RRs were 74.8, 67.9, and 52.1 for the normal liver, Child-Pugh A, and Child-Pugh B cirrhotic groups, respectively. A very good agreement was found, both within intrareader and interreader reliability, with intraclass correlation coefficient values ranging from 0.88 to 0.95 and from 0.85 to 0.90, respectively.

The proposed method allowed accurate reliable in vitro/vivo T1RR assessment evaluation of the liver biliary function after gadolinium ethoxybenzyl-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid administration.