Hardware & Software Design for Serial & Longitudinal Rat MR Elastography Studies

Kevin John Glaser¹, Jun Chen¹, Meng Yin¹, Thomas Hulshizer¹, Phillip Rossman¹, Richard Ehman¹

This work demonstrates an approach to rat liver MR elastography (MRE) designed to facilitate serial and longitudinal studies of hepatic stiffness for applications such as monitoring disease progression and treatment efficacy. A large, thin driver was constructed that allowed for rapid positioning of each animal, and a rapid EPI MRE acquisition was used to measure liver stiffness. Results are shown demonstrating hepatic changes in rats due to a bile duct ligation (BDL) surgery over 4 weeks compared to rats given a sham surgery.