Liver Elastography by Magnetic Resonance

Introduction: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common causes of chronic liver disease in the world and the development of that is associated with an increased risk for morbidity and mortality through hepatic (fibrosis, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma) and non-hepatic (cardiovascular disease and cancer) complications. The Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE) is a phase-contrast-based MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging) technique that can directly visualize and quantitatively measure propagating acoustic strain waves in tissue-like materials subjected to harmonic mechanical excitation. The aim of the present review is to evaluate the currently available evidence regarding the use of MRE among NAFLD patients. methods: In this review the keywords Liver disease, NAFLD, Magnetic Resonance Elastography were searched in PubMed and Google scholar. Finally articles from 2014 to 2019 were evaluated. Result: MRE is already being used clinically for the assessment of patients with chronic liver diseases and is emerging as a safe, reliable and noninvasive alternative to liver biopsy for staging hepatic fibrosis. It has a high diagnostic accuracy for identifying advanced fibrosis (stage 3–4). Multiple studies have also shown that MRE provides an accurate biomarker for detecting the presence of fibrosis in patients with chronic liver dysfunction. Indeed, MRE has been reported to be a useful method for the diagnosis of liver fibrosis in patients with NAFLD, even in the early stages. Conclusion: Magnetic Resonance Elastography is considered to be a reliable, highly accurate, and precise method for assessing hepatic fibrosis in patients with Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Keywords:

Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE) , Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) ,