Relationship Between Liver Function and Liver Signal Intensity in Hepatobiliary Phase of Gadolinium Ethoxybenzyl Diethylenetriamine Pentaacetic Acid-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Abstract

The degree of liver enhancement in the hepatobiliary phase may reflect liver cell function. The measurement of liver signal intensity in the hepatobiliary phase may be useful in predicting whole and regional hepatic functional reserves.

Hepatic enhancement during the hepatobiliary phase after gadoxetate disodium administration in patients with chronic liver disease: The role of laboratory factors

“…The degree of parenchymal enhancement on the hepatobiliary phase images has been shown to reflect the function of the hepatocytes (5,20). Therefore, in patients with chronic parenchymal liver disease, the enhancement of the liver on the delayed images may be lower than expected in the patients with normal liver function (5)(6)(7).…”

“…The mean MELD score in the patients with imaging stigmata of cirrhosis was 11.0 (SD 4.0; range [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], and the mean MELD score in patients without imaging stigmata of cirrhosis was 7.3 (SD 1.3; range 5-10) (P < 0.004). Because all patients in the subgroup without imaging stigmata of cirrhosis had MELD scores 10, this subgroup was compared with a subgroup that had imaging stigmata of cirrhosis and also had MELD scores 10 (n ¼ 45).…”

“…In patients with hepatic cirrhosis as well as in those without it, lesion detection and characterization heavily rely on comparison of the lesion's signal intensity to that of the background hepatic parenchyma (3,4). As the extent of parenchymal liver enhancement on the hepatobiliary phase has been shown to be dependent on the function of the hepatocytes, such enhancement may be lower in patients with chronic parenchymal liver disease than in patients with normal liver function (5)(6)(7). Consequently, in patients who have the decreased levels of hepatic enhancement on the hepatobiliary phase images, the algorithm for hepatic lesion characterization may need to be altered.…”

Imaging-Based Liver Function Tests – Past, Present and Future

“…Based on experiments in rats [47,48], Tajama et al were one of the first to be able to show the connection between reduced Gd-EOB enhancement and limited liver function in humans. Different lab values, the Child-Pugh score and the ICG test were correlated with the SNR of the liver for this purpose [49]. Various methods for optimizing this method were subsequently published including a correction with the calculation of the liver-to-muscle enhancement ratio [50] and correction based on the liver volume and the enhancement of the spleen to determine the "hepatocellular uptake index" (HUI) [50].…”

Effect of isoflurane anesthesia and hypothermia on the hepatic kinetics of Gd‐EOB‐DTPA: Evaluation using MRI of conscious mice

“…Small animal MRI is usually performed under anesthesia, which may change physiological conditions and affect the experimental results including the pharmacokinetics of a contrast agent. The kinetics of a hepatobiliary contrast agent reflects liver function in humans and small animals (5,6) and is important to determine the optimal timing of imaging. It has been suggested that the kinetics of two hepatobiliary contrast agents, gadobenate dimeglumine (Gd-BOPTA) (7) and gadoxetate disodium (Gd-EOB-DTPA) (8), differ between anesthetized and conscious mice, and that anesthesia using isoflurane or pentobarbital prolongs contrast enhancement in the liver.…”