Repeatability and reproducibility of multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging of the liver

PLoS One. 2019 Apr 10;14(4):e0214921. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214921. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

As the burden of liver disease reaches epidemic levels, there is a high unmet medical need to develop robust, accurate and reproducible non-invasive methods to quantify liver tissue characteristics for use in clinical development and ultimately in clinical practice. This prospective cross-sectional study systematically examines the repeatability and reproducibility of iron-corrected T1 (cT1), T2*, and hepatic proton density fat fraction (PDFF) quantification with multiparametric MRI across different field strengths, scanner manufacturers and models. 61 adult participants with mixed liver disease aetiology and those without any history of liver disease underwent multiparametric MRI on combinations of 5 scanner models from two manufacturers (Siemens and Philips) at different field strengths (1.5T and 3T). We report high repeatability and reproducibility across different field strengths, manufacturers, and scanner models in standardized cT1 (repeatability CoV: 1.7%, bias -7.5ms, 95% LoA of -53.6 ms to 38.5 ms; reproducibility CoV 3.3%, bias 6.5 ms, 95% LoA of -76.3 to 89.2 ms) and T2* (repeatability CoV: 5.5%, bias -0.18 ms, 95% LoA -5.41 to 5.05 ms; reproducibility CoV 6.6%, bias -1.7 ms, 95% LoA -6.61 to 3.15 ms) in human measurements. PDFF repeatability (0.8%) and reproducibility (0.75%) coefficients showed high precision of this metric. Similar precision was observed in phantom measurements. Inspection of the ICC model indicated that most of the variance in cT1 could be accounted for by study participants (ICC = 0.91), with minimal contribution from technical differences. We demonstrate that multiparametric MRI is a non-invasive, repeatable and reproducible method for quantifying liver tissue characteristics across manufacturers (Philips and Siemens) and field strengths (1.5T and 3T).

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted
  • Liver / diagnostic imaging*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging / instrumentation
  • Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods*
  • Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging / statistics & numerical data
  • Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease / diagnostic imaging
  • Phantoms, Imaging / standards
  • Prospective Studies
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

The study was funded by Perspectum Diagnostics. The funder provided support in the form of salaries for authors V.B., M.D.K., J.J., R.N., C.J.K., M.L.G., K.E.G., A.M., A.H.H., C.C.F., M.H., M.M., N.J., S.L., and R.B., but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.