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Imaging Makes Liver Biopsy Unnecessary

Posted on: Tuesday, 4 November 2008, 00:00 CST

Imaging technology can identify liver fibrosis with high accuracy, limiting the need for biopsies to diagnose diseases, U.S. researchers say.

Dr. Jayant Talwalkar, a hepatologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said magnetic resonance elastography, or MRE, produces color-coded images known as elastograms that indicate how internal organs, muscles and tissues would feel to the touch. Other imaging methods are unable to provide that information.

"Knowing the liver's elasticity or stiffness is invaluable in diagnosing liver disease," Talwalkar said in a statement. "A healthy liver is very soft, while a liver with early disease begins to stiffen. A liver with cirrhosis, advanced liver disease, can be rock hard."

The study by Talwalkar and other Mayo researchers showed elastography was highly accurate in detecting moderate-to-severe hepatic fibrosis regardless of age, type of liver disease or body size, Talwalkar said. The study also found:

-- The detection of cirrhosis by MRE when compared to liver biopsy results was 88 percent accurate.

-- Patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and no significant inflammation or fibrosis were identified with 97 percent accuracy.

The findings were presented at The Liver Meeting, an annual gathering of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease, in San Francisco.

Source: United Press International

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