Apparent Diffusion Coefficient Is a Novel Imaging Biomarker of Myopathic Changes in Liver Cirrhosis.
Alexey SurovLisa PaulHans-Jonas MeyerStefan SchobCornelius EngelmannAndreas WienkePublished in: Journal of clinical medicine (2018)
Diffusion weighted imaging can provide information regarding tissue composition and can quantitatively characterize different pathological changes by means of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC). The study comprised of 114 patients with liver cirrhosis-22 women and 92 men with a mean age of 56.5 ± 9.0 years. In all patients, the Model for End Stage-Liver Disease (MELD) score was calculated. Furthermore, 12 healthy persons (5 women, 7 men), mean age, 42.1 ± 16.2 years, were investigated as a control group. In all cases, magnetic resonance imaging of the liver/trunk was performed using different 3T scanners and diffusion weighted images were obtained with a multi-shot SE-EPI sequence. In all cases, polygonal regions of interest were manually drawn on the ADC maps along the contours of the iliopsoas and paravertebral muscles. The comparison of ADC values in groups was performed by Mann-Whitney-U tests. The association between ADC and MELD score was calculated by Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. ADC values of the skeletal musculature were statistically much higher in comparison to those in the control group: 1.85 ± 0.46 × 10-3 mm² s-1 vs. 1.23 ± 0.12 × 10-3 mm² s-1, p = 0.001. ADC values showed statistically significant correlation with the MELD score (r = 0.473, p = 0.0001). Furthermore, ADC values differed between the subgroups with different values of the MELD score. ADC values correlated slightly with lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (r = 0.381, p = 0.0001) and tended to correlate with C-reactive protein (CRP) (r = 0.171, p = 0.07) and alanine aminotransferase (ALAT) (r = -0.167, p = 0.076). ADC can reflect muscle changes in liver cirrhosis and shows statistically significant correlation with the MELD score. Therefore, ADC can be used as an imaging biomarker of myopathic changes in liver cirrhosis.
Keyphrases
- diffusion weighted imaging
- contrast enhanced
- magnetic resonance imaging
- diffusion weighted
- computed tomography
- high resolution
- magnetic resonance
- end stage renal disease
- polycystic ovary syndrome
- deep learning
- skeletal muscle
- chronic kidney disease
- ejection fraction
- peritoneal dialysis
- adipose tissue
- prognostic factors
- ultrasound guided
- breast cancer risk