Liver segmental volumes and their relationship with 5-year prognostication

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Hepatology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Chronic liver disease (CLD) diagnosis and prognosis are critical.
• Routine abdominal CT scans offer potential for non-invasive assessment.
• Predictive imaging biomarkers for CLD are actively sought.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the predictive value of caudate to right lobe ratio (CRL-R) and liver segmental volume ratio (LSVR) for CLD.
• To assess the association of CRL-R and LSVR with 5-year decompensation- and transplant-free survival in CLD patients.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 108 healthy controls and 98 CLD patients.
• Abdominal CT scans analyzed for CRL-R and LSVR measurements.
• Kruskal-Wallis and ROC analyses determined cutoff values; Kaplan-Meier assessed survival.

Main Results:

• Both CRL-R and LSVR showed significant differences across CLD severity groups (p < 0.001).
• CRL-R > 0.99 (AUC=0.75) and LSVR > 0.37 (AUC=0.80) predicted advanced CLD.
• Combined high CRL-R and LSVR correlated with significantly lower 5-year survival rates (31% decompensation-free, 41% transplant-free).

Conclusions:

• CRL-R and LSVR are valuable imaging biomarkers for predicting CLD on routine CT scans.
• These ratios demonstrate significant predictive capability for CLD.
• Combined CRL-R and LSVR are associated with long-term survival outcomes in CLD patients.