Magnetic resonance elastography in the assessment of hepatic fibrosis: a study comparing transient elastography and histological data in the same patients.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the quantitative measurement of liver stiffness (LS), compare the diagnostic performance of magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) and ultrasound-based transient elastography (TE), and evaluate two different MRE-based LS measurement methods.

METHODS: Between October 2013 and January 2015, 116 consecutive patients with chronic liver disease underwent MRE to measure LS (kilopascals; kPa). Of the 116 patients, 51 patients underwent both TE and liver biopsy, and the interval between the liver biopsy and both the MRE and TE was less than 90 days. MRE-derived LS values were measured on the anterior segment of the right lobe (single small round regions of interest per slice; srROIs) and whole right lobe of the liver (free hand region of interest; fhROI), and these values were correlated with pathological fibrosis grades and diagnostic performance.

RESULTS: Pathological fibrosis stage was significantly correlated with srROIs (r = 0.87, p < 0.001), fhROI (r = 0.80, p < 0.001), and TE (r = 0.73, p < 0.001). For detection of significant fibrosis (≥F2), advanced fibrosis (≥F3), and cirrhosis, the area under the curve (AUC) associated with the srROIs was largest, and there was a significant difference between srROIs and TE (0.93 vs. 0.82, p = 0.006), srROIs and fhROI (0.93 vs. 0.89, p = 0.04) for detection of ≥F2. For advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis detection, AUCs were not significant (0.92-0.96).

CONCLUSIONS: MRE and TE detected liver fibrosis with comparable accuracy. In particular, the srROIs method was effective for detecting of significant fibrosis.