Comprehensive Evaluation of Human Donor Liver Viability with Polarization-Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography

Human liver transplantation is severely constrained by a critical shortage of donor livers, with approximately one quarter of patients on the waiting list dying due to the scarcity of viable organs. Current liver viability assessments, which rely on invasive pathological methods, are hampered by limited sampling from biopsies, particularly in marginal livers from extended criteria donors (ECD) intended to expand the donor pool. Consequently, there is a pressing need for more comprehensive and non-invasive evaluation techniques to meet the escalating demand for liver transplants. In this study, we propose the use of polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) to perform a thorough viability evaluation across the entire surface of donor livers. PS-OCT imaging was conducted on multiple regions, achieving near-complete coverage of the liver surface, and the findings were cross-validated with histopathological evaluations. The analysis of hepatic parameters derived from pathology highlighted tissue heterogeneity. Leveraging machine learning and texture analysis, we quantified hepatic steatosis, fibrosis, inflammation, and necrosis, and established strong correlations (≥ 80%) between PS-OCT quantifications and pathological assessments. PS-OCT offers a non-invasive assessment of liver viability by quantifying hepatic parenchymal parameters across the entire donor liver, significantly complementing current pathological analysis. These results suggest that PS-OCT provides a robust, non-invasive approach to assessing donor liver viability, which could potentially decrease the discard rate of higher risk livers, thereby expanding the donor pool and reducing the inadvertent use of those livers unsuitable for transplantation.