Korean Journal of Radiology

The Korean Society of Radiology (대한영상의학회)
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Assessment of Diffusion Tensor Imaging Parameters of Hepatic Parenchyma for Differentiation of Biliary Atresia from Alagille Syndrome

  • Ahmed Abdel Khalek Abdel Razek (Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Mansoura Faculty of Medicine) ;
  • Ahmed Abdalla (Gastroenterology and Hepatology Unit, Mansoura Children Hospital, Mansoura Faculty of Medicine) ;
  • Reda Elfar (Gastroenterology and Hepatology Unit, Mansoura Children Hospital, Mansoura Faculty of Medicine) ;
  • Germeen Albair Ashmalla (Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Mansoura Faculty of Medicine) ;
  • Khadiga Ali (Department of Pathology, Mansoura Faculty of Medicine) ;
  • Tarik Barakat (Gastroenterology and Hepatology Unit, Mansoura Children Hospital, Mansoura Faculty of Medicine)
  • Received : 2019.07.05
  • Accepted : 2020.04.18
  • Published : 2020.12.01
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Abstract

Objective: To assess diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) parameters of the hepatic parenchyma for the differentiation of biliary atresia (BA) from Alagille syndrome (ALGS). Materials and Methods: This study included 32 infants with BA and 12 infants with ALGS groups who had undergone DTI. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) of the liver were calculated twice by two separate readers and hepatic tissue was biopsied. Statistical analyses were performed to determine the mean values of the two groups. The optimum cut-off values for DTI differentiation of BA and ALGS were calculated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Results: The mean hepatic MD of BA (1.56 ± 0.20 and 1.63 ± 0.2 × 10-3 mm2/s) was significantly lower than that of ALGS (1.84 ± 0.04 and 1.79 ± 0.03 × 10-3 mm2/s) for both readers (r = 0.8, p = 0.001). Hepatic MD values of 1.77 and 1.79 × 10-3 mm2/s as a threshold for differentiating BA from ALGS showed accuracies of 82 and 79% and area under the curves (AUCs) of 0.90 and 0.91 for both readers, respectively. The mean hepatic FA of BA (0.34 ± 0.04 and 0.36 ± 0.04) was significantly higher (p = 0.01, 0.02) than that of ALGS (0.30 ± 0.06 and 0.31 ± 0.05) for both readers (r = 0.80, p = 0.001). FA values of 0.30 and 0.28 as a threshold for differentiating BA from ALGS showed accuracies of 75% and 82% and AUCs of 0.69 and 0.68 for both readers, respectively. Conclusion: Hepatic DTI parameters are promising quantitative imaging parameters for the detection of hepatic parenchymal changes in BA and ALGS and may be an additional noninvasive imaging tool for the differentiation of BA from ALGS.

Keywords

References

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