RESUMEN
PURPOSE: Contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is able to assess liver function by characteristic changes of signal intensity (SI).The aim was to evaluate dynamic contrast-enhanced SI-indices of the abdominal aorta, portal vein and liver. METHODS: 72 patients underwent Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI and a 13C-methacetin-based liver breath test (13C-MBT) for evaluation of liver function. Region-of-interest measurements in the liver, abdominal aorta and portal vein during native, arterial (AP), late arterial (LAP), portal venous (PVP) and hepatobiliary phase (HBP) were applied to analyze SI-indices in T1-weighted volume-interpolated breath-hold examination (VIBE) sequences with fat-suppression and relative enhancement (RE) analysis was performed. RESULTS: The liver (pâ<â0.001), the portal vein (pâ<â0.001) and abdominal aorta (pâ=â0.002) showed significant decrease of REs with decreasing liver function. An increasing trend between logarithmic values of 13C-MBT and REs of hepatic parenchyma (HBP; râ=â0.662, pâ<â0.001), portal vein (PVP; râ=â0.532, pâ<â0.001) and abdominal aorta (PVP; râ=â0.421, pâ<â0.001) was observed. CONCLUSIONS: RE measurements of the hepatic parenchyma proofed to be a trustable evaluation method for liver function evaluation. In accordance with liver function, changes of REs in the portal vein and abdominal aorta occur.