Staging Liver Fibrosis: Comparison of Native T1 Mapping, T2 Mapping, and T1ρ: An Experimental Study in Rats With Bile Duct Ligation and Carbon Tetrachloride at 11.7 T MRI

• Published in: Journal of magnetic resonance imaging 2022-02, Vol.55 (2), p.507-517
• Main Authors: Lu, Yimei, Wang, Qianfeng, Zhang, Tingting, Li, Jinning, Liu, Huanhuan, Yao, Defan, Hou, Liang, Tu, Beiwu, Wang, Dengbin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal models; Animals; Bile ducts; Bile Ducts - diagnostic imaging; Biomarkers; Carbon; Carbon Tetrachloride; CCL4 protein; Correlation analysis; Cytokeratin; Factorial design; Fibrosis; Field strength; Liver; Liver - pathology; Liver Cirrhosis - diagnostic imaging; Liver Cirrhosis - pathology; liver fibrosis; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Mapping; Prospective Studies; Rats; Statistical analysis; Statistical tests; Steatosis; T1 mapping; T1ρ; T2 mapping; Variance analysis
• ISSN: 1053-1807; 1522-2586
• DOI: 10.1002/jmri.27822

Background T1, T2, and T1ρ might be potential biomarkers for assessing liver fibrosis. However, few studies reported the value of them in different animal models. Purpose To investigate and compare the performances of T1, T2, and T1ρ for noninvasively staging liver fibrosis in bile duct ligation (BDL) or carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) model. Study Type Prospective animal model. Subjects Liver fibrosis was induced by BDL or injection of CCl4 in 120 rats. Field Strength/Sequence 11.7 T, T1 mapping with 10 repetition times, T2 mapping with 32 echo times, and T1ρ with 10 spin‐lock times. Assessment T1, T2, and T1ρ were measured and correlated with liver fibrosis stages, as well as the degree of inflammation, steatosis, iron deposition, and the expression of cytokeratin 19. The discriminative performance of T1, T2, and T1ρ for staging liver fibrosis was compared. Statistical Tests One‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Spearman's correlation analysis, factorial design ANOVA, and receiver operating characteristic curves (P