Samantha A. Telfer1, N.J. Taylor2, James Stirling2, Ian Simcock2, Anwar R. Padhani2, Gareth Thomas1, T. W. James1
1Acuitas Medical, Swansea, West Glamorgan, United Kingdom; 2Paul Strickland Scanner Centre, Northwood, Middlesex, United Kingdom
Fine structure analysis (structural spectroscopy of fine textures below the resolution limit of clinical MR imaging) was applied to specially acquired MR data of ex-vivo livers from pigs and oxen to establish their utility as phantoms for characterising chronic liver disease (CLD). Porcine liver exhibits fibrotic structure similar to human CLD whilst ox liver has an appearance similar to healthy human liver. Whole liver lobules decorated with a fibrotic network exhibit a distinctly different spectral signature than the underlying vascular structure of the lobules - hence clearly distinguishing between the two livers and supporting use of fine structure analysis.