Whole-Liver Histogram Analysis Of Blood Oxygen Level-Dependent Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging In Evaluating Hepatic Fibrosis

Background: To explore whole-liver histogram analysis (HA) with blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) in evaluating and diagnosing hepatic fibrosis (HF) in a CCl4-induced rabbit model.Methods: One hundred rabbits were classified as CCl4-induced HF groups (n=80) and control group (n=20), and were scheduled for BOLD-fMRI examination on a 3.0T scanner. Whole-liver HA metrics, including the mean, median, skewness, kurtosis, inhomogeneity, entropy, and nth percentiles, were extracted from the R-2* map. Parameters were compared among the different HF stages using receivers operating characteristic analysis and Mann-Whitney U-test.Results: In all, 17, 18, 19, 17, and 15 rabbits were pathologically diagnosed as F0, F1, F2, F3, and F4, respectively. HA parameters, including the median, inhomogeneity, entropy, and the 75th and 90th percentiles of the BOLD R-2* map, demonstrated significant positive correlations with the fibrosis stage (r=0.226-0.718, P=0.039). The 75th percentiles demonstrated higher diagnostic efficacy than the other HA parameters in fibrosis staging, with an AUC value of 0.86 for >= F1, 0.87 for >= F2, 0.87 for >= F3, and 0.86 for >= F4.Conclusions: BOLD-fMRI HA provides increased diagnostic performance in staging HF, especially for the 75th percentiles.