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Published on: May 10, 2022
Longitudinal T1ρ quantification in chronic hepatitis B: from fibrosis staging to pegylated interferon-α therapeutic
Xin-Gui Peng1, Yufei Zhao1, Zhi Qin1
1Nurturing Center of Jiangsu Province for State Laboratory of AI Imaging & Interventional Radiology, Department of Radiology, Zhongda Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210009, China.
Rationale And Objectives:
To investigate liver tissue alterations across chronic hepatitis B (CHB) progression stages and monitor therapeutic changes following pegylated interferon-α (PEG-IFNα) therapy using T1ρ magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Materials And Methods:
This prospective study enrolled 93 CHB patients stratified by histological severity: 44 mild, 26 moderate, and 23 severe cases. All patients underwent liver biopsy and T1ρ MRI at baseline, followed by 48 weeks of PEG-IFNα therapy. 36 patients completed post-treatment T1ρ MRI. A control cohort of 23 healthy volunteers received baseline MRI scans. Hepatic T1ρ relaxation times were compared across subgroups and correlated with histopathological parameters (inflammation grade, fibrosis stage), serum biomarkers (alanine aminotransferase [ALT], aspartate aminotransferase [AST], total bilirubin [TBIL], direct bilirubin [DBIL], cholinesterase [CHE]), and non-invasive indices (fibrosis-4 index [FIB-4]). Statistical analyses included Spearman's correlation and linear regression.
Results:
The mild CHB group showed elevated T1ρ relaxation time (43.94 ± 4.88 ms) versus healthy controls (39.05 ± 3.07 ms; P = 0.028), with progressive increases in moderate (48.21 ± 5.78 ms; P = 0.022 vs mild) and severe subgroups (53.99 ± 5.78 ms; P < 0.001 vs moderate). All patient groups differed significantly from controls (all P < 0.001). T1ρ relaxation times exhibited strong positive correlations with histopathological progression (R2 = 0.77 for fibrosis stage, R2 = 0.50 for inflammation grade; both P < 0.001) and moderate correlations with liver function parameters (ALT: R2 = 0.18; AST: R2 = 0.21) and synthetic markers (CHE: R2 = 0.24). Post-therapeutic T1ρ values decreased significantly compared to baseline (48.99 ± 8.05 ms vs. 43.57 ± 7.20 ms, P = 0.014).
Conclusion:
T1ρ MRI provides a promising non-invasive tool for assessing liver disease severity and monitoring treatment-related changes in CHB patients.
