Does intravoxel incoherent motion reliably stage hepatic fibrosis, steatosis, and inflammation?

To investigate the usefulness of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) in determining the severity of hepatic fibrosis, steatosis, and inflammation in patients with chronic liver disease.

Forty-nine patients who had liver MRI with IVIM sequence and liver biopsy within three months of MRI were enrolled. A reviewer, blinded to histology, placed regions of interest of 1–2 cm² in the right liver lobe. In addition, the first twenty patients were assessed with a second reviewer. Perfusion fraction (f), pseudodiffusion coefficient (D _fast), true diffusion coefficient (D _slow), and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) were calculated from normalized signal intensities that were fitted into a biexponential model. Errors in the model were minimized with global stochastic optimization using Simulated Annealing. ANOVA with post hoc Tukey–Kramer test and multivariate generalized linear model analysis were performed, using histological findings as the gold standard.

The most common etiologies for liver disease were hepatitis C and alcohol, accounting together for 76% (37/49) of patients. Low-grade fibrosis (F0, F1), hepatic steatosis, and inflammation were seen in 24% (12/49), 31% (15/49), and 29% (14/49) of patients, respectively. The interobserver correlation was poor for D _fast and D _slow (0.105, 0.173) and moderate for f and ADC (0.461, 0.418). ANOVA showed a strong inverse association between D _fast and liver fibrosis grade (p = 0.001). A weak inverse association was seen between ADC and hepatic steatosis (p = 0.059). Multivariate general linear model revealed that the only significant association between IVIM parameters and pathological features was between D _fast and fibrosis. On ROC curve analysis, D _fast < 23.4 × 10⁻³ mm²/s had a sensitivity of 82.8% and a specificity of 64.3% in predicting high-grade fibrosis.

D _fast has the strongest association with hepatic fibrosis but has weak interobserver correlation. IVIM parameters were not significantly associated with hepatic inflammation or steatosis.