Nature of the liver volume depending on the gender and age assessing volumetry from a reconstruction of the computed tomography

Kohei Harada; Tomohiro Ishinuki; Yoshiya Ohashi; Takeo Tanaka; Ayaka Chiba; Kanako Numasawa; Tatsuya Imai; Shun Hayasaka; Takahito Tsugiki; Koji Miyanishi; Minoru Nagayama; Ichiro Takemasa; Junji Kato; Toru Mizuguchi

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0261094

Nature of the liver volume depending on the gender and age assessing volumetry from a reconstruction of the computed tomography

PLoS One. 2021 Dec 8;16(12):e0261094. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261094. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Division of Radiology, Sapporo Medical University Hospital, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.
² Postgraduate School of Health Science and Medicine, Sapporo Medical University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.
³ Department of Medical Oncology, Sapporo Medical University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.
⁴ Departments of Surgery, Surgical Science and Oncology, Sapporo Medical University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.

Abstract

Although the liver is a regenerating organ, excessive loss of liver volume (LV) can cause fatal liver failure. It is unclear whether LV is correlated with age; however, it is known that liver function decreases with age. In addition, the gender-related role of LV remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the changes in LV by age and gender. Between January and December 2018, 374 consecutive patients who underwent abdominal multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) for any abdominal examinations were enrolled. LV was evaluated using MDCT. The relationship between the LV and body mass index (BMI), body surface area (BSA), age, and gender was investigated. The modified LV (mLV) was calculated by a formula measured LV × 1.5/BSA. LV correlated to BSA more than to BMI in both the males (R: 0.559 vs. 0.416) and females (R: 0.479 vs. 0.300) in our study. Age was negatively correlated to LV and BSA, and correlated to LV more than to BSA in males (R: 0.546 vs. 0.393) and females (R: 0.506 vs. 0.385). In addition, the absolute slope between age and LV in the males was higher than that in the females (14.1 vs. 10.2, respectively). Furthermore, the absolute slope of age and mLV in the males was slightly higher than in the females (9.1 vs. 7.3, respectively). In conclusion, LV in the normal liver is correlated to age rather than the one in the diseased liver. Liver volume in the males decreased more with age than LV in the females.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Age Factors
Aged
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods*
Liver / anatomy & histology*
Liver / physiology*
Male
Organ Size
Sex Factors
Tomography, X-Ray Computed / methods*

Grants and funding

Grant-in-Aid for JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Number JP 20K10404 to T. Mizuguchi and JP 21K10715 to T. Ishinuki); the Hokkaido Hepatitis B Litigation Orange Fund (Sapporo, Japan: 2059198 to T. Mizuguchi and 2100446 to K. Harada); Terumo Life Science Foundation (Tokyo, Japan: 2000666 to T. Mizuguchi); Pfizer Health Research Foundation(Tokyo, Japan: 2000777 to T. Mizuguchi); the Viral Hepatitis Research Foundation of Japan (Tokyo, Japan: 3039838 to T. Mizuguchi); Project Mirai Cancer Research Grants (Tokyo, Japan: 3062451 to T. Mizuguchi); Daiichi Sankyo Company, (Tokyo, Japan: 2109540 to T. Mizuguchi); Shionogi (Osaka, Japan: 2109493 to T. Mizuguchi); MSD Life Science Foundation (Tokyo, Japan: 2099412 to T. Mizuguchi); Takeda Pharmaceutical Company (Tokyo, Japan: 2000555 to T. Mizuguchi); Sapporo Doto Hospital (Sapporo, Japan: 2039118 to T. Mizuguchi); Noguchi Hospital (Otaru, Japan: 2029083 to T. Mizuguchi); Doki-kai Tomakomai Hospital (Tomakomai, Japan: 2059203 to T. Mizuguchi); Tsuchida Hospital (Sapporo, Japan: 2069231 to T. Mizuguchi); Yasuda Medical Foundation (Osaka, Japan: 28-1to T. Ishinuki); Grants-in-Aid for Promotion of Cancer Research (Tokyo, Japan: 1900647 to K. Harada). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.