Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
Shenzhen College of Advanced Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
J Magn Reson Imaging. 2022 Nov;56(5):1429-1436. doi: 10.1002/jmri.28131. Epub 2022 Feb 25.
Early detection and grading of liver inflammation are important for the management of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients. There is still lack of a noninvasive way for the inflammation characterization in NAFLD.
To assess liver inflammation grades by water specific T1 (wT1) in a rat model.
Prospective.
A total of 65 male rats with methionine-choline-deficient diet-induced NAFLD and 15 male normal rats as control.
FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: A 3 T; multiecho variable flip angle gradient echo sequence.
The wT1 and proton density fat fraction were quantified. Inflammation and fibrosis were assessed histologically with H&E and Sirius red stained slices according to the nonalcoholic steatohepatitis scoring system. Inflammation grade was scored with G0/G1/G2/G3 as none/mild/moderate/severe inflammation in NALFD rats. G0 + G1 and G2 + G3 were combined as none-to-mild grade (GL) and moderate-to-severe grade (GH) inflammation groups.
Analysis of variance (ANOVA), Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman's correlation, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis were performed. The areas under ROC (AUROC) was used for the diagnostic performance of wT1 in discriminating GH and GL. A P value < 0.01 was considered statistically significant.
Seventy-six rats were included in the analysis. The numbers in G0-G3 groups were 5, 16, 13, and 27. wT1 of G0-G3 was 568.55 ± 63.93 msec, 582.53 ± 62.98 msec, 521.21 ± 67.31 msec, and 508.79 ± 60.53 msec. A moderate but significant negative correlation between wT1 and histopathological inflammation grades was observed (r = -0.42). The wT1 of GH (512.80 ± 62.22 msec) was significantly lower than GL (579.20 ± 61.89 msec). The AUROC of wT1 was 0.79, and the optimal cut-off of wT1 was 562.64 msec (sensitivity: 90%, specificity: 76%), for the discrimination of GL and GH.
wT1 could differentiate none-to-mild inflammation from moderate-to-severe inflammation in the early stage of the NAFLD rat model.
1 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 1.
早期发现和分级肝脏炎症对于非酒精性脂肪性肝病（NAFLD）患者的管理非常重要。目前仍然缺乏一种用于 NAFLD 炎症特征描述的非侵入性方法。
通过大鼠模型评估水特异 T1（wT1）来评估肝脏炎症分级。
前瞻性。
共有 65 只雄性大鼠，采用蛋氨酸-胆碱缺乏饮食诱导 NAFLD，以及 15 只雄性正常大鼠作为对照。
磁场强度/序列：3T；多回波可变翻转角梯度回波序列。
对 wT1 和质子密度脂肪分数进行定量。通过苏木精和伊红染色切片以及非酒精性脂肪性肝炎评分系统对炎症和纤维化进行组织学评估。根据 NAFLD 大鼠的非酒精性脂肪性肝炎评分系统，将炎症分为 G0/G1/G2/G3 级（无/轻度/中度/重度炎症）。G0+G1 和 G2+G3 组合为无至轻度（GL）和中至重度（GH）炎症组。
进行方差分析（ANOVA）、曼-惠特尼 U 检验、斯皮尔曼相关分析和受试者工作特征（ROC）分析。ROC 曲线下面积（AUROC）用于评估 wT1 在区分 GH 和 GL 中的诊断性能。P 值<0.01 被认为具有统计学意义。
共有 76 只大鼠纳入分析。G0-G3 组的数量分别为 5、16、13 和 27。G0-G3 的 wT1 值分别为 568.55±63.93msec、582.53±62.98msec、521.21±67.31msec 和 508.79±60.53msec。wT1 与组织病理学炎症分级呈中度但显著负相关（r=-0.42）。GH 的 wT1（512.80±62.22msec）明显低于 GL（579.20±61.89msec）。wT1 的 AUROC 为 0.79，最佳截断值为 562.64msec（敏感性：90%，特异性：76%），用于区分 GL 和 GH。
wT1 可区分 NAFLD 大鼠模型早期的无至轻度炎症与中至重度炎症。
1 技术功效：阶段 1。
