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Assessment of hepatic perfusion in transplanted livers by pharmacokinetic analysis of dynamic magnetic resonance measurements.

Scharf J, Kemmling A, Hess T, Mehrabi A, Kauffmann G, Groden C, Brix G

Department of Neuroradiology, University of Heidelberg, University Hospital Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany. johann.scharf@rad.ma.uni-heidelberg.de

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to validate the assessment of hepatic perfusion by pharmacokinetic analysis of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance image series. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Dynamic measurements were performed with a saturation recovery turbo fast low angle shot (ie, FLASH) sequence over the course of approximately 4 minutes in 17 patients with transplanted livers. By pharmacokinetic analysis using an open 2-compartment model, we estimated and correlated an amplitude of signal enhancement, A, and the perfusion rate, kp, with invasive perfusion measurements from implanted thermo-diffusion probes (FTDP). RESULTS: Data analysis for segment IV of the transplanted livers yielded a mean blood flow of 81 +/- 19 mL/min/100g and a mean perfusion rate of 13 +/- 6 minutes. There was a significant correlation between FTDP and kp (rS = 0.64, P = 0.01) but not with A. CONCLUSIONS: Although our open 2-compartment model oversimplifies the complexity of hepatic perfusion, it allows a numerically robust estimation of regional blood flow per unit of blood volume. Thus, dynamic magnetic resonance imaging represents a noninvasive method to assess hepatic perfusion rate which can be visualized in color coded images.

Published 12 March 2007 in Invest Radiol, 42(4): 224-9.
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