Hepatic ADC value correlates with cirrhotic severity of patients with biliary atresia

Introduction: At least 40% of survivors of biliary atresia have progressive cirrhosis even after undergoing Kasai operation. The values of hepatic apparent diffusion coefficient and apparent-diffusion-coefficient-related indices were applied to biliary atresia patients and correlated with cirrhotic severity scores of model for end-stage liver disease or pediatric end-stage liver disease model, Child-Turcotte, and Child-Pugh systems. Materials and methods: Thirty-three biliary atresia patents (mean = 1140, 61–4314 days of age) received magnetic resonance image examinations due to complications of biliary atresia from April 2008 to August 2009. Two non-breath-hold diffusion weighted imaging sequences were performed with motion-probing gradients in three directions with two b values: 0/100 and 0/500 s/mm2; 1000 ms/61.1 ms, time to repeat/time to echo; number of excitation, 1.0; 8 mm section thickness; 40 cm × 40 cm field of view; 128 × 256 matrix in all biliary atresia patients and 18 control subjects. We used the Spearman rank correlation test to analyze the relationship among the scores of model for end-stage liver disease or pediatric end-stage liver disease model, Child-Turcotte and Child-Pugh scores and right hepatic apparent diffusion coefficients, apparent diffusion coefficient using b factor of 500-albumin product and alanine transaminase/apparent diffusion coefficient with b factor of 500 ratio. Results: The right hepatic apparent diffusion coefficient using b factor of 100, apparent diffusion coefficient with b factor of 500 and product of apparent diffusion coefficient with b factor of 500-albumin level were significantly negatively correlated (p ≤ 0.0125) with model for end-stage liver disease or pediatric end-stage liver disease model, Child-Turcotte, and Child-Pugh scores of biliary atresia patients. The ratio of alanine transaminase level/right hepatic apparent diffusion coefficient with b factor of 500 was also significantly (p ≤ 0.0251), moderately correlated with Child-Turcotte and Child-Pugh scores (rho = 0.5256 and 0.7518, respectively). Conclusion: Right hepatic apparent diffusion coefficient with b factor of 500 and alanine transaminase/right hepatic apparent diffusion coefficient with b factor of 500 can be useful for long-term follow-up of cirrhotic severity in biliary atresia patients.