1. Noninvasive Liver Assessment in Adult Patients With Fontan Circulation Using Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Elastography and Hepatic Magnetic Resonance Imaging
- Author
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Luis Martí-Bonmatí, Jaime Agüero, J. Melero-Ferrer, Ana Osa-Sáez, Pilar Calvillo-Batllés, D Plaza-López, Antonio Ballesta-Cuñat, C. Fonfría-Esparcia, Francisco Buendía-Fuentes, Luis Martínez-Dolz, and Joaquín Rueda-Soriano
- Subjects
Adult ,Heart Defects, Congenital ,Liver Cirrhosis ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Adolescent ,medicine.medical_treatment ,030204 cardiovascular system & hematology ,Impulse (physics) ,Fontan Procedure ,Multimodal Imaging ,030218 nuclear medicine & medical imaging ,Fontan circulation ,Fontan procedure ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,Liver disease ,0302 clinical medicine ,hepatic magnetic resonance ,medicine ,Humans ,Prospective Studies ,Acoustic radiation force ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,Adult patients ,business.industry ,Magnetic resonance imaging ,General Medicine ,medicine.disease ,Magnetic Resonance Imaging ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Liver ,elastography ,Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health ,Elasticity Imaging Techniques ,Female ,Surgery ,liver disease ,Elastography ,Radiology ,Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine ,business - Abstract
Background: Patients who have undergone the Fontan procedure are at risk of developing hepatic dysfunction. However, broad recommendations regarding liver monitoring are limited. The purpose of this study was to characterize the frequency of liver disease in adult Fontan patients using multimodality imaging (hepatic magnetic resonance imaging [MRI], acoustic radiation force impulse [ARFI] elastography, or hepatic ultrasound). Methods: In a prospective cross-sectional analysis of adult patients palliated with a Fontan procedure, hepatic MRI, ARFI, and hepatic ultrasound were used to assess for liver disease. The protocol compared (1) varying prevalence of liver disease based on each imaging technique, (2) agreement between different techniques, and (3) association between noninvasive imaging diagnosis of liver disease and clinical variables, including specific liver disease biomarkers. Results: Thirty-seven patients were enrolled. The ARFI results showed high wave propagation velocity in 35 patients (94.6%). All patients had some abnormality in the hepatic MRI. Specifically, 8 patients (21.6%) showed signs of chronic liver disease, 10 patients (27%) had significant liver fibrosis, and 27 patients (73%) had congestion. No correlation was found between liver stiffness measured as propagation velocity and hepatic MRI findings. Only 7 patients had an abnormal hepatic ultrasound study. Conclusions: There is an inherent liver injury in adult Fontan patients. Signs of liver disease were observed in most patients by both hepatic MRI and ARFI elastography but not by ultrasound imaging. Increased liver stiffness did not identify specific disease patterns from MRI, supporting the need for multimodality imaging to characterize liver disease in Fontan patients.
- Published
- 2017