MR elastography effective for assessing liver stiffness in children

MR elastography (MRE) is an effective technique for noninvasive monitoring of liver stiffness -- a surrogate for fibrosis -- in children and young adults with autoimmune liver disease, researchers have reported. A team led by first author Jonathan Dillman, MD, of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Center in Ohio found that MRE liver stiffness measurements were elevated in children and young adults with autoimmune liver disease. The results were published April 18 in the American Journal of Roentgenology. “[As well, these measurements] were not significantly different between subsets of patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC)/autoimmune sclerosing cholangitis (ASC) and autoimmune hepatitis (AIH),” Dillman said in a statement released by the AJR. Liver fibrosis is a key indicator of the progression of autoimmune liver disease, and monitoring it noninvasively would benefit patients, especially young ones, the team noted. The investigators used data from a registry of children and young adult patients diagnosed with AILD, ASC, or AIH, identifying 46 patients (median age, 16.6 years) who underwent an abdominal 1.5-tesla MRI that included liver MRE as well as a liver biopsy within six months. A 2D gradient-recalled echo sequence for MRE was used to measure mean liver shear stiffness (kPa) for each exam. A pathologist determined histologic METAVIR liver fibrosis stage, blinded to clinical and MRI data (the METAVIR score is a tool used to evaluate the severity of fib...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - Category: Radiology Authors: Tags: MRI Pediatric Radiology Source Type: news