How Cardiac Fibrosis Assessed via T1 Mapping Is Associated with Liver Fibrosis in Patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Figures

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  Figure 1. Diagram of study flow. CIMT, carotid intima–media thickness; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging.

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  Figure 2. Myocardial extracellular volumes in patients with and without significant fibrosis. ECV, extracellular volume.

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  Figure 3. Post-contrast T1 maps were generated to provide myocardial characterization and allow for extracellular volume calculation in two patients: (A) a female, 53 years old with no liver fibrosis and myocardial ECV = 21.5%, and (B) a female, 79 years old, with significant liver fibrosis and myocardial ECV = 29.0%.

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  Scheme 1. Visual summary illustrating the association between cardiac extracellular volume (ECV) measured via MRI and liver fibrosis detected with magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

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  Figure 4. Receiver operating characteristic curve for the myocardial extracellular volume (ECV), discriminating patients with and without significant liver fibrosis.

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  Figure 5. Liver magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) of two patients, one without (A–C) and the other with (D–F) significant liver fibrosis. (A,D): Conventional abdominal out-of-phase T1-weighted MRI images show normal liver contour with steatosis (A) and irregular liver contour, indicating chronic liver disease (D). (B,E): Wave images from MRE acquisition depicting thin waves (B) in the patient with no fibrosis and thicker waves (E) in the patient with significant liver fibrosis. (C,F): Corresponding color elastograms with 95% of confidence interval in the map show normal liver stiffness values in the patient with no significant fibrosis (C) and elevated liver stiffness values in the patient with significant fibrosis (F).