Correlation of MR Elastography with Morphometric Quantification of Liver Fibrosis (Fibro-C-Index) in Chronic Hepatitis B

PurposeWe evaluated the correlation of MR Elastography (MRE) with morphometric assessment of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B (CHB). MethodsThirty-two patients with CHB underwent both MRE and a liver biopsy within a 6-month interval. MRE was performed using standard MRE sequence on a 1.5 Tesla clinical scanner. The liver stiffness (LS) was measured on automatically generated stiffness maps. Morphometric quantification of fibrosis of liver biopsies was performed using a semi-automated image analysis program and expressed as percentage area (Fibro-C-Index). Correlations between MRE, Fibro-C-Index, and histologic fibrosis stages were evaluated. Receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis of MRE and Fibro-C-index for differentiating fibrosis (F1), significant fibrosis (F2), advanced fibrosis (F3), and cirrhosis (F4) was performed. ResultsMRE showed excellent correlation with both Fibro-C-Index (r=0.78, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59-0.88, P<0.001) and histologic staging (rho=0.87, 95% CI, 0.72-0.94, P<0.0001). Significant differences in MRE (P=0.0001) and Fibro-C-Index (P=0.003) among different stages of liver fibrosis was found. MRE and Fibro-C-Index had similar accuracies for differentiating fibrosis stages: F1 (0.87 versus 0.81, P=0.6), F2 (0.95 versus 0.94, P=0.78), F3 (0.98 versus 0.96, P=0.76), and F4 (1.00 versus 0.92, P=0.10). ConclusionMRE is an excellent noninvasive indicator of liver fibrosis burden in CHB. Magn Reson Med 72:1123-1129, 2014. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.