Biliary tract enhancement in gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI correlates with liver function biomarkers

To evaluate the association between gadoxetic-acid-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging measurements and laboratory and clinical biomarkers of liver function and fibrosis.One hundred thirty nine consecutive patients with suspected liver disease or liver tumor underwent gadoxetic-acid-enhanced MR imaging. MR imaging measurements during the hepatobiliary phase included biliary tract structure-to-muscle signal intensity ratio (SIR). These measurements were compared with Child-Pugh classification, end-stage liver disease (MELD) score, and aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI).The SIRs of cystic duct and common bile duct were significantly correlated with Child-Pugh classification (P=0.012 for cystic duct and P0.0001 for common bile duct), MELD score (P=0.0016 and P=0.0033), and APRI (P=0.0022 and P=0.0015). The sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver-operating-characteristic curve were: (74%, 88%, 0.86) with the SIR of common bile duct for the detection of patients with Child-Pugh class B or C; (100%, 87%, 0.94) with the SIR of cystic duct for MELD score (10); (65%, 76%, 0.70) with the SIR of common bile duct for APRI (1.5).Gadoxetic-acid contrast enhancement of cystic duct and common bile duct could be used as biomarkers to assess liver function.