Evaluation of Rabbits Liver Fibrosis Using Gd-DTPA-BMA of Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Objective. To evaluate the different pharmacokinetic parameters of the DCE-MRI method on diagnosing and staging of rabbits' liver fibrosis. Methods. We had performed DCE-MRI for rabbits that had been divided into the experiment group and the control group. Then, rabbits' images were transferred to a work station to get three parameters such as K-trans, K-ep, and V-e, which had been measured to calculate. After data were analyzed, ROC analyses were performed to assess the diagnostic performance of K-trans, K-ep, and V-e to judge liver fibrosis. Results. The distribution of the different liver fibrosis group was as follows: F1, n = 8; F2, n = 9; F3, n = 6; F4, n = 5. No fibrosis was deemed as F0, n = 6. K-ep is statistically significant (P<0.05) for F0 and mild liver fibrosis stage, and the K-ep shows AUC of 0.814. Three parameters are statistically significant for F0 and advanced liver fibrosis stage (K-trans and K-ep, P<0.01; V-e, P<0.05), and the K-trans shows AUC of 0.924; the K-ep shows AUC of 0.909; the V-e shows AUC of 0.848; K-trans and K-ep are statistically significant for mild and advanced liver fibrosis stages (K-trans, P<0.01; K-ep, P<0.05), and the K-trans shows AUC of 0.840; the K-ep shows AUC of 0.765. Both K-trans and K-ep are negatively correlated with the liver fibrosis stage. V-e is positively correlated with the liver fibrosis stage. Conclusion. K-trans is shown to be the best DCE parameter to distinguish the fibrotic liver from the normal liver and mild and advanced fibrosis. On the contrary, K-ep is moderate and V-e is worst. And K-ep is a good DCE parameter to differentiate mild fibrosis from the normal liver.

Automated summary

This study evaluated the different pharmacokinetic parameters of the DCE-MRI method for diagnosing and staging liver fibrosis in rabbits. The results indicate that K-trans is the best parameter for distinguishing fibrotic livers from normal livers and mild to advanced fibrosis, while K-ep is suitable for distinguishing mild fibrosis.