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Comparison of diagnostic accuracies of two‐ and three‐dimensional MR elastography of the liver
Author(s) -
Morisaka Hiroyuki,
Motosugi Utaroh,
Glaser Kevin J.,
Ichikawa Shintaro,
Ehman Richard L.,
Sano Katsuhiro,
Ichikawa Tomoaki,
Onishi Hiroshi
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.25425
Subject(s) - magnetic resonance elastography , elastography , liver fibrosis , medicine , gradient echo , cirrhosis , nuclear medicine , fibrosis , radiology , magnetic resonance imaging , ultrasound , pathology
Purpose To evaluate the effect of imaging sequence (spin‐echo echo‐planar imaging [EPI] and gradient‐echo [GRE]) and postprocessing method (two‐dimensional [2D] and 3D inversion algorithms) on liver MR elastography (MRE) and to validate the diagnostic performance of EPI‐MRE 3D versus conventional GRE‐MRE 2D for liver fibrosis staging. Materials and Methods Three MRE methods (EPI‐MRE 3D , EPI‐MRE 2D , and GRE‐MRE 2D ) were performed on soft and mildly stiff phantoms and 58 patients with chronic liver disease using a 3 Tesla clinical MRI scanner, and stiffness values were compared among the three methods. A validation study comprised 73 patients with histological liver fibrosis (F0–4, METAVIR system). Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) and accuracies for diagnosing significant fibrosis (F3–4) and cirrhosis (F4) were compared between EPI‐MRE 3D and GRE‐MRE 2D . Results Stiffness values of the soft and mildly stiff phantoms were 2.4 kPa and 4.0 kPa by EPI‐MRE 3D ; 2.6 kPa and 4.2 kPa by EPI‐MRE 2D ; and 2.7 kPa and 4.2 kPa by GRE‐MRE 2D . In patients, EPI‐MRE 3D provided significantly lower stiffness values than other methods ( P < 0.001). However, there was no significant difference between GRE‐MRE 2D and EPI‐MRE 2D ( P = 0.12). The AUCs and accuracies of EPI‐MRE 3D and GRE‐MRE 2D were statistically equivalent in the diagnoses of significant fibrosis (F3–4) and cirrhosis (F4) (all P < 0.005). Conclusion EPI‐MRE 3D showed modestly lower liver stiffness values than conventional GRE‐MRE 2D . The diagnostic performances of EPI‐MRE 3D and GRE‐MRE 2D were equivalent for liver fibrosis staging. Level of Evidence: 3 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2017;45:1163–1170