Aims and objectives
To report the frequency and discern potential reasons for liver magnetic resonance elastography technical failure in the clinical setting of a single institution.
Methods and materials
Eighty-nine magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) examinations performed from May 2017 to March 2018 in eighty-nine consecutive patients (mean age 53 years; male patients n=71 [80%]) were retrospectively analyzed.
MRE examinations were performed on a 1.5T scanner (Signa HDx,
General Electric Medical Systems,
Milwaukee,
WI,
USA).
Patients underwent MRE to diagnose or to stage liver fibrosis.
Table 1 shows the characteristics of study populations.
Low amplitude mechanical waves at 60 Hz are generated through the liver during imaging,
using a passive driver device in contact with...
Results
MRE failed in 15 out of 89 exams (16.9%).
Reasons for failure were low T2* decay value in 13 patients,
subcostal liver in one patient and thick subcutaneous tissue layer in another patient.
MRE technical failure was correlated with decreasing T2* value (OR 0,75 [0.65,
0.85] P<0.0001).
A significant correlation between increasing BMI,
steatosis or a specific disease and MRE technical failure was not found.
A T2* decay value ≤ 9.7 ms predicted MRE technical failure with a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 86.67...
Conclusion
MR Elastography (MRE) of the liver is a non-invasive technique that allows quantitative evaluation and staging of liver stiffness [1].
MRE is a safe,
fast,
and highly accurate technique that analyses a large area of liver parenchyma,
with good reproducibility.
It allows stiffness calculation even in the case of obese patients and in those with hepatic steatosis [2].
One of the most frequent reasons for technical failure in MRE is hepatic iron overload as noted in previous works [1,
3,
4].
In a recent article,...
Personal information
Ilaria Mussetto MD
School of Radiology,
University of Genoa,
Department of Health Sciences DISSAL,
Via Antonio Pastore 1,
16132 Genova,
Italy
References
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4.
Hepatic Mr...