Feasibility and performance of spin-echo EPI MR elastography at 3 Tesla for staging hepatic fibrosis in the presence of hepatic iron overload

Abstract

Purpose To assess the feasibility and performance of MR elastography (MRE) for quantifying liver fibrosis in patients with and without hepatic iron overload. Methods This retrospective single-center study analyzed 139 patients who underwent liver MRI at 3 Tesla including MRE (2D spin-echo EPI sequence) and R2* mapping for liver iron content (LIC) estimation. MRE feasibility and diagnostic performance between patients with normal and elevated LIC were compared. Results Patients with elevated LIC (21%) had significantly higher MRE failure rates (24.1% vs. 3.6%, p < 0.001) compared to patients with normal LIC (79%). For those with only insignificant to mild iron overload (LIC < 5.4 mg/g; 17%), MRE failure rate did not differ significantly from patients without iron overload (8.3% vs. 3.6%, p = 0.315). R2* predicted MRE failure with fair accuracy at a threshold of R2* ≥ 269 s−1 (LIC of approximately 4.6 mg/g). MRE showed good diagnostic performance for detecting significant (≥ F2) and severe fibrosis (≥ F3) in patients without (AUC 0.835 and 0.900) and with iron overload (AUC 0.818 and 0.889) without significant difference between the cohorts (p = 0.884 and p = 0.913). For detecting cirrhosis MRE showed an excellent diagnostic performance in both groups (AUC 0.944 and 1.000, p = 0.009). Conclusion Spin-echo EPI MRE at 3 Tesla is feasible in patients with mild iron overload with good to excellent performance for detecting hepatic fibrosis with a failure rate comparable to patients without iron overload.