MNDPDP ENHANCEMENT CHARACTERISTICS AND DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN CIRRHOTIC AND NONCIRRHOTIC LIVERS

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES. The objective was to analyze if liver enhanc ement with mangafodipir trisodium was influenced by liver cirrhosis. M ETHODs. Eighty patients (49 with cirrhotic and 31 with noncirrhotic li vers) were studied with spin-echo and spoiled gradient-echo T1-weighte d images, before and after administration of mangafodipir trisodiun, H epatic insufficiency was assessed using the Child classification. Imag e analysis was performed both qualitatively and quantitatively. RESULT S; Noncirrhotic livers enhanced homogeneously but 37% of cirrhotic liv ers did not; the difference was significant. Areas corresponding to co llapsed fibrous zones enhanced less than the rest of the parenchyma; a reas of regenerating nodular zones enhanced more. Signal-to-noise rati os were significantly less for cirrhotic livers on postcontrast spoile d gradient-echo images. Cirrhotic livers had significantly lower relat ive enhancement ratios than noncirrhotic ones. The Child index and asp artate aminotransferase values were statistically related to the enhan cement ratio. CONCLUSIONS. Mangafodipir trisodium enhancement in cirrh otic livers is related to necrosis and regeneration of the hepatocytes . Cirrhotic livers enhanced less than noncirrhotic ones.