Our recent research published in European Radiology aimed to evaluate the impact of hepatic steatosis (HS) on liver volume by conducting a retrospective analysis of 1,038 living liver donors. We measured liver volume on gadoxetic acid-enhanced hepatobiliary phase MR images and proton density fat fraction (PDFF). Our results showed that HS leads to a 4.4% increase in liver volume per 5% increment in absolute PDFF value.
One of the significant aspects of our study was the use of a deep learning algorithm for liver volume measurement on MR images, which allowed for a time-efficient measurement process in a large study population. The application of deep learning for automated image analysis may facilitate research based on a large cohort, producing new knowledge. Additionally, we used standard liver volume as the reference lean liver volume in our study. Standard liver volume represents the liver volume of a healthy person with a given body size. We hypothesized that a standard liver volume model developed from healthy individuals without HS may serve as a method to estimate reference lean liver volume, and a mean deviation of measured liver volume from standard liver volume in a group of patients with HS may reflect the effect of HS on liver volume. We proposed an equation to estimate lean liver volume, which can be used to calculate liver volume, excluding the effect of HS.
Key points
- Hepatic steatosis increases liver volume.
- The presented formula to estimate lean liver volume using MRI-measured proton density fat fraction and liver volume may be useful to adjust for the effect of hepatic steatosis on measured liver volume.
Authors: Ji Young Choi, Seung Soo Lee, Na Young Kim, Hyo Jung Park, Yu Sub Sung, Yedaun Lee, Jee Seok Yoon & Heung-Il Suk
