Liver Fibrosis Detection and Staging: A Comparative Study of T1ρ MR Imaging and 2D Real-time Shear-wave Elastography

There was moderate positive correlation between fibrosis stage and T1ρ values (r=0.566; 95% CI 0.291-0.754; P<0.0001), and LS value (r=0.726; 95% CI 0.521-0.851; P=0.003). T1ρ values showed moderate positive correlations with LS values (r=0.693; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.472-0.832; P<0.0001). Areas Under ROC (AUROCs) were 0.861 (95% CI: 0.705-0.953) for SWE and 0.856 (95% CI: 0.698-0.950) for T1ρ (P = 0.940), 0.906 (95% CI: 0.762-0.978) for SWE and 0.849 (95% CI: 0.691-0.946) for T1ρ (P = 0.414), 0.870 (95% CI: 0.716-0.958) for SWE and 0.799 (95% CI: 0.632-0.913) for T1ρ (P = 0.422), and 0.846 (95% CI: 0.687-0.944) for SWE and 0.692 (95% CI: 0.517-0.835) for T1ρ (P = 0.137), when diagnosing liver fibrosis with ≥F1, ≥F2, ≥F3 and F4, respectively. There was moderate positive correlation between inflammatory activity and T1ρ values (r=0.520; 95% CI 0.158-0.807; P=0.013).