Abstract
Purpose
To investigate whether the addition of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA)-enhanced 3D T1-weighted MR cholangiography (T1w-MRC) to 3D T2-weighted MRC (T2w-MRC) improves the confidence and diagnostic accuracy of biliary anatomy in living liver donors.
Methods
Two abdominal radiologists retrospectively and independently reviewed pre-operative MR studies in 58 consecutive living liver donors. The second-order bile duct visualization on T1w- and T2w-MRC images was rated on a 4-point scale. The readers also independently recorded the biliary anatomy and their diagnostic confidence using (1) combined T1w- and T2w-MRC, and (2) T2w-MRC. In the 23 right lobe donors, the biliary anatomy at imaging and the imaging-predicted number of duct orifices at surgery were compared to intra-operative findings.
Results
T1w-MRC had a higher proportion of excellent visualization than T2w-MRC, 66% vs. 45% for reader 1 and 60% vs. 31% for reader 2. The median confidence score for biliary anatomy diagnosis was significantly higher with combined T1w- and T2w-MRC than T2w-MRC alone for both readers (Reader 1: 3 vs. 2, p < 0.001; Reader 2: 3 vs. 1, p < 0.001). Compared to intra-operative findings, the accuracy of imaging-predicted number of duct orifices using combined T1w-and T2w-MRC was significantly higher than that using T2w-MRC alone (p = 0.034 for reader 1, p = 0.0082 for reader 2).
Conclusion
The addition of Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced 3D T1w-MRC to 3D T2w-MRC improves second-order bile duct visualization and increases the confidence in biliary anatomy diagnosis and the accuracy in the imaging-predicted number of duct orifices acquired during right lobe harvesting.
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Larry Cai, Benjamin Yeh, Antonio C Westphalen, John Roberts, and Zhen J. Wang declares no conflict of interests.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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This was a retrospective study approved by our Committee on Human Research. IRB approval was obtained for this study with waiver of informed consent.
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Cai, L., Yeh, B.M., Westphalen, A.C. et al. 3D T2-weighted and Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced 3D T1-weighted MR cholangiography for evaluation of biliary anatomy in living liver donors. Abdom Radiol 42, 842–850 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-016-0936-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-016-0936-z