EVALUATION OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FETAL THALAMUS ECHOGENICITY BY ULTRASOUND AND NEONATAL LUNG MATURITY

Background:
Liver fibrosis is known as a life threatening disease due to its side effects such as portal hypertension and liver dysfunction. The disease is curable at early stages which makes the diagnostics of Fibrosis a crucial matter. The golden standard for Liver Fibrosis evaluation is the liver biopsy. However, this method is considered to be invasive and is followed by side effects. Thus, there is a growing demand for non-invasive methods to diagnose Liver Fibrosis and the stage of the disease. One of the non-aggressive approaches is Diffusion-Weighted Imaging (DWI).
Purpose:
Comparison of Biopsy and DW MRI as diagnostic approaches for staging liver fibrosis.
Methods:
This study covers a group of patients suffering from chronic liver disease who are referred to an Imaging Centre located in Mashhad city in 1395-96. The experienced radiologists in the field of intervention performed the biopsy procedure and the tissue samples were tested in the pathology laboratory to determine the stage and severity of the Fibrosis. Furthermore, the patients were scanned by MRI ( MRI 1.5 Tesla siemens symphony ) with all the required sequences (T1,T2, ADC,…) and b values 500 ,1000 s/mm2. The results were collected by the radiologist and analysed by SPSS software.
Results:
It is found that a negative correlation exists between Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) value and the Liver Fibrosis severity level. At lower ADC values the Fibrosis is more severe. Additionally, the ADC value was evaluated versus the Fibrosis stage. The results show a statistical difference between Stage 1,4, Stage 2,3, Stage 2,4 and no obvious statistical difference between F1,F2 and F3,F4.
Conclusion:
Based on the experimental results in the current study, DWI is a useful method to observe and diagnose at the middle and final stages of Fibrosis. However, DWI cannot used as a valid approach to differentiate between early stages of the disease.