Liver Transplant Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Liver Transplant, including details on risks, prognosis, procedure, surgery, organ donation.

Biliary tract depiction in living potential liver donors at 3.0-T magnetic resonance cholangiography.

Kim SY, Byun JH, Hong HS, Choi EK, Lee SS, Park SH, Lee MG

Department of Radiology and Research Institute of Radiology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.

OBJECTIVES: To prospectively evaluate accuracy of biliary anatomy depiction and quality of biliary tract visualization of magnetic resonance cholangiography (MRC) at 3.0 T in living potential liver donors (LPLDs). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our institutional review board approved this study and did not require patient's informed consent. Thirty-three LPLDs underwent MRC at 3.0-T magnetic resonance and intraoperative cholangiography as the reference standard. MRC protocol included breath-hold rapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement (RARE) and respiratory-triggered 3-dimensional turbo spin-echo (TSE) T2-weighted sequence. Two readers independently analyzed 2 MRC image sets with a 2-week interval for delineating biliary anatomy and scoring degree of visualization of biliary branches with a 4-point scale, and recorded the number of visible third-order branches. One month later, both readers independently evaluated combined both MRC image set to assess biliary anatomy. RESULTS: Biliary anatomy was correctly depicted by RARE sequence in 28 (84.8%) and 26 LPLDs (78.8%), by TSE sequence in 27 (81.8%) and 26 (78.8%), and by combined both sequences in 27 (81.8%) and 28 (84.8%), for readers 1 and 2, respectively. The mean second-order branch visualization scores for 2 readers were significantly higher for RARE images than for TSE (2.23 vs. 1.68, P = 0.02; 2.05 vs. 1.54, P = 0.02, respectively). The mean numbers of visible third-order branches were significantly higher for RARE images than TSE for both readers (4.36 vs. 3.04, P = 0.03; 4.72 vs. 3.32, P = 0.03, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: In LPLDs, MRC at 3.0 T with both RARE and TSE sequences enables accurate depiction of biliary anatomy. RARE sequence more clearly visualizes second- and third-order biliary branches than TSE sequence.

Published 23 July 2008 in Invest Radiol, 43(8): 594-602.
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