4D Flow MRI of Portal Vein Hemodynamics in Healthy Volunteers and Patients with Chronic Liver Disease

Mengmeng Zhang; Hailong Yu; Di Zhao; Wen Shen; Xu Bai; Meng Zheng; Jiachen Ji; Rui Li; Jianming Cai; Changchun Liu; Jinghui Dong

doi:10.2174/0115734056269300231127052836

4D Flow MRI of Portal Vein Hemodynamics in Healthy Volunteers and Patients with Chronic Liver Disease

Curr Med Imaging. 2024 Feb 27. doi: 10.2174/0115734056269300231127052836. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Mengmeng Zhang¹, Hailong Yu¹, Di Zhao², Wen Shen³, Xu Bai¹, Meng Zheng¹, Jiachen Ji⁴, Rui Li⁴, Jianming Cai¹, Changchun Liu¹, Jinghui Dong¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, The Fifth Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100039, China.
² Senior Department of Hepatology, The Fifth Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100039, China.
³ Department of Radiology, Tianjin First Center Hospital, Tianjin 300192, China.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Center for Biomedical Imaging Research, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.

PMID: 38415457
DOI: 10.2174/0115734056269300231127052836

Abstract

Aim: To identify age-matched healthy volunteers, non-cirrhotic chronic liver disease (CLD) and cirrhotic patients based on portal hemodynamic parameters using 4D flow MRI.

Methods: A total of 10 age-matched healthy volunteers and 69 CLD patients were enrolled and underwent 4D flow MRI prospectively. 4D flow MR images were processed by an MD in biomedical engineering working on the GTFlow platform. Portal hemodynamic parameters include net flow (mL/cycle), flow volume per second through the lumen (mL/sec), average flow velocity (cm/sec), and maximum flow velocity (cm/sec). The difference in portal hemodynamic parameters of 4D flow MRI was compared among healthy volunteers, non-cirrhotic CLD patients and patients with cirrhosis by one-way ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric test and post hoc tests.

Results: 10 CLD patients without cirrhosis and 56 patients with cirrhosis were eventually included, along with 10 healthy volunteers who were divided into three groups. 3 patients with cirrhosis whose image quality did not meet the requirements were excluded. There were no significant differences in portal hemodynamic parameters among the three groups except portal average velocity (P > 0.05). There was no statistical difference in all portal hemodynamic parameters of 4D flow MRI between healthy volunteers and patients with cirrhosis (P > 0.05). There were significant differences in portal average velocity between non-cirrhotic CLD patients, healthy volunteers and patients with cirrhosis, respectively (11.44±3.93 vs 8.10±2.66, P=0.013; 11.44±3.93 vs 8.60±2.22, P=0.007).

Conclusion: Portal average velocity obtained by 4D flow MRI can be an auxiliary means to identify cirrhosis in patients with CLD.

Keywords: 4D flow MRI; Chronic liver disease; Cirrhosis; Hemodynamics; Portal vein.