Objective: To preliminarily evaluate the feasibility and usefulness of MR elastography of the liver at 3 T with cine-tagging and bending energy (BE) analysis for the evaluation of hepatic fibrosis.
Materials and methods: Twenty-two patients underwent MR elastography with four different cine-tagging grids on the liver (16- or 20-mm sagittal or coronal). Nine images serially obtained during 1-s of exhalation were analyzed to define coordinates of grid intersections. BE values were calculated using the thin-plate spline method. BE values were compared among patient groups with different fibrosis stage thresholds.
Results: In the 22 patients, six had a fibrosis score of F0, one had F1, seven had F2, three had F3, and five had F4. Mean BE value with 16-mm sagittal grid was greater with fibrosis score F0 (1.54 ± 0.63) than with ≥F1 (0.97 ± 0.12, P = 0.013) as well as with ≤F1 (1.48 ± 0.60) than with ≥F2 (0.96 ± 0.36, P = 0.019).
Conclusion: Our results showed that MR elastography with 16-mm sagittal grid and BE analysis had a potential in discrimination for the patients with moderate or advanced hepatic fibrosis from those with healthy liver or slight fibrosis.