Evaluation of regional liver damage by magnetic resonance imaging with superparamagnetic iron oxide in rat liver.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether regional liver damage could be detected by means of enhanced MR imaging with a superparamagnetic iron oxide (SH U 555A) in an ischemia-reperfusion model of rat liver. Ischemic liver damage was induced in the right lobe by vascular clamping for 0 (sham), 30 (I-30), 60 (I-60), and 90 minutes (I-90). There was no significant difference in relative enhancement (RE) between the ischemic and nonischemic lobes in the sham, I-30 and I-60 groups, while RE of the ischemic lobe was significantly lower than that of its nonischemic counterpart in the I-90 group as seen on SH U 555A enhanced proton density spin echo images (P < 0.05). Histological examination revealed that iron deposits were significantly smaller in the ischemic than the nonischemic lobe in the I-90 group (P < 0.05), although there was no significant difference in the number of Kupffer cells. Our results indicate that severe regional liver damage can be evaluated by MR imaging with SH U 555A.