Is the magnetic resonance imaging proton spin-lattice relaxation time a reliable noninvasive parameter of developing liver fibrosis?

Abstract

During the development of liver fibrosis in rats by an individual dose-titrated CCl4 administration, hepatic proton spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) has been measured in vivo every 2 weeks for 8 weeks. Liver content of collagen, triglycerides and water has been measured biochemically in biopsy material. After 4 weeks of CCl4 treatment, T1 increased significantly and remained at the same level, whereas liver collagen reached its maximum at 8 weeks. It is concluded that, under our experimental conditions, increased hepatic T1 represents drug-induced edema and that hepatic T1 is not a reliable noninvasive parameter for developing liver fibrosis in vivo.

MR relaxometry of the liver: significant elevation of T1 relaxation time in patients with liver cirrhosis

“…In addition, comparison of the standard deviation measured in 1990 by Thomsen and in 1993 by de Certaines (±153 and ±142 ms respectively) with that in the present study (±45 ms) indicates there has been improvement in the accuracy of the method and the MRI equipment [21,26]. Magnetic resonance relaxometry has been evaluated earlier in experimental ex vivo settings [29,30]. Results of these studies show that MR relaxometry may fulfil the requirements of a non-invasive, quantitative and reproducible test to identify liver cirrhosis.…”

Detection of liver fibrosis with magnetic cross‐relaxation

“…MR has been investigated as a potential tool for quantitatively assessing fibrosis, although the results have thus far been discouraging. As discussed earlier, Chamuleau et al concluded that changes in T, times reflected edema, and were not useful for detecting fibrosis (2 Imaging data has been reported in humans, with attempts to correlate appearance on T.-weighted images with fibrotic scarring, since fibrous tissue is felt to have a short T, time. This has yielded very mixed results; most investigators find fibrous tissue to be dark on T,-weighted images (29-33), although the results are by no means always consistent; Negandank et al, for example, found that dense fibrosis in patients with histories of lymphoma was bright on T,-weighted images (5).…”

Diagnosis and Measurement of Liver Fibrosis by MRI in Bile Duct Ligated Rats

“…Moreover, as in liver iron quantification [1], it has been suggested that MRI might be used to quantify liver fibrosis [2,3]. However, previous studies on the measurement of liver fibrosis by MRI [2,3,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] have shown an increase in relaxation times (rTs), whereas a decrease in these parameters was expected.…”

“…Indeed, in vivo the rT of proton is due to total water content, changes in the ratio of free to bound water, and changes in the dynamic structure of macromolecules and water [5]. Collagen is the main component of the extracellular matrix in liver fibrosis.…”