Usefulness of Multi-parametric, Quantitative MR Imaging for Staging of Hepatic Fibrosis in the Patients With Chronic Hepatitis

Liver fibrosis has been considered as irreversible change. However, recent study showed that early stage liver fibrosis could be reversible and a lot of new drugs are now developing or developed including anti-viral treatment. Liver biopsy is considered as golden standard for the evaluation of liver fibrosis. But biopsy specimen through biopsy only consists of 1/50000 of the whole liver and heterogeneity of liver fibrosis, accurate diagnosis of liver fibrosis is still challenging. Furthermore, its invasive nature, repeated biopsy is practically almost impossible. Hence, non-invasive diagnosis of liver fibrosis is important. In this study we hypothesized that multi-parametric MR imaging including MR elastography, conventional DWI, and IVIM can predict changes of liver stiffness after anti-viral therapy in patients with chronic liver disease. We will enroll 60 biopsy-proven patients and perform multi-parametric MR imaging at the enrollment and one year later to evaluate changes in quantitative values in MR.