Chronic hepatic encephalopathy (cHE) is a severe brain condition arising from chronic liver disease. Microstructural changes occurring due to toxins accumulation in the brain are still unexplored in vivo, especially in cerebellum, and of key interest for disease early detection. Using the STE-LASER sequence, we measured a decreased diffusion coefficient for glutamine and increased for taurine and glutamate in the cerebellum of a rat model of cHE, associated with cell-specific morphological changes measured ex vivo. These preliminary results need to be confirmed by increasing the sample size but they shed light on new aspects in the pathophysiology of HE.
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