Abstract #3727

GABA and Susceptibility Changes in Striatum in Liver Cirrhosis: Preliminary Results

Gasper Zupan^1,2, Sebastian Stefanovic³, Marjana Turk Jerovsek³, Borut Stabuc³, Georg Oeltzschner^4,5, Stefan Ropele⁶, Dusan Suput¹, and Andrej Vovk¹

¹Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia, ²Institute of Radiology, University Medical Center Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia, ³Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Medical Center Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia, ⁴Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, The John Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States, ⁵M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States, ⁶Department of Neurology, Neuroimaging Research Unit, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria

Liver cirrhosis (LC) is a worldwide public health problem. One of the complications of LC is hepatic encephalopathy which can present only as subtle cognitive impairment. Using advanced MR methods (MEGA-PRESS Spectroscopy and Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping), decreased striatal GABA levels, decreased susceptibility in caudate nucleus and increased susceptibility in putamen were demonstrated in LC patients compared to healthy controls. GABA levels and susceptibility in putamen correlated with the results of neuropsychological tests in the LC group compared to healthy controls.

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