Lorenzo Mannelli1, Christopher A. Potter1, Theodore J. Dubinsky1, Orpheus Kolokythas1, Manjiri K. Dighe1, Jeffrey H. Maki1
1University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
The tag-MRI technique is routinely used to quantify myocardial muscle contractility by measuring myocardial strain after application of tags. Tissue strain and stiffness are inversely proportional in that the stiffer a tissue is, the less deformable it becomes. The principal strain represents the amount of the greatest elongation or stretch of the tissue at a given location. Since the liver becomes increasingly stiffer as chronic liver disease progresses, increments in liver stiffness should be reflected by changes in liver strain, which can be quantified using tag-MRI.