Patient-centered Innovation
MRE: "It left me speechless"
"Seeing my liver and the state of disease for the first time was a very powerful, emotional moment - it left me speechless," recalls Deb Sobel.
"MRE painted a true picture of the PBC progression. I used to be mad at my liver, but then I felt bad for it and decided to protect and take care of it as much as possible."
Deb was a tireless advocate for liver health through the PBCers Organization - a non-profit coalition dedicated to helping patients with Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC).
Learn more about PBCers and Deb's story here.
MR Elastography for Liver Disease Patients
MR Elastography is able to overcome many confounding factors that can impact the performance in other non-invasive technologies. Notably for fatty liver disease, this most often includes patients battling obesity or that may have Diabetes mellitus.
In these and other cases, clinical guidelines recommend that MRE, not transient elastography (i.e., Fibroscan®) to reliably estimate the degree of fibrosis present. Clinicians and patients may also request fat fraction measurements (steatosis), inflammation, and/or malignancy via traditional MR workup, resulting in a powerful and one-stop liver assessment.
Fibrosis Staging
MR Elastography (MRE) measures stiffness by assessing four images across the entire liver, resulting in a comprehensive and incredibly accurate diagnosis not available with other non-invasive technologies. In addition to a stiffness score measured in kPa, clinicians and patients often receive color-coded maps of their liver fibrosis, called Elastograms. In these intuitive maps, red corresponds to highly advanced fibrosis, while purple represents healthy liver tissue.
When to ask for MRE
MR Elastography is able to overcome many confounding factors that can impact the performance in other non-invasive technologies (left). Notably for fatty liver disease, this most often includes patients battling obesity and/or Diabetes mellitus, as ultrasound-based elastography methods often perform poorly in these patient groups.
Because MRE is not affected by waist circumference or obesity, clinical guidelines suggest MRE, instead of transient elastography (i.e., Fibroscan®), to reliably estimate the degree of fibrosis present. Clinicians and patients may also request fat fraction measurements (for steatosis), inflammation, and/or malignancy via traditional MR workup, resulting in a powerful, one-stop liver assessment.
TRADITIONAL MRI
The image here shows a typical MRI scan of the liver. While MRI is incredibly powerful at seeing anatomy, function, etc., traditional MRI hasn't yet been able to reliably distinguish between healthy tissue and stiffer tissue, such as fibrosis or cirrhosis.
"MRE and what it does, makes me think of a marshmallow. Just like a marshmallow fresh out of the bag, a soft liver is good. As a marshmallow gets stale, the surface hardens.
I was happy to learn that my liver is soft and healthy - and to find that out without experiencing any pain."
Find MRE
With thousands of clinical installations worldwide, MR Elastography is widely available. To find a location near you, go to resoundant.com/mre-connect.
If you don't yet have a local imaging center equipped with MRE, you can go to resoundant.com/mrenearme to help us bring MRE to your area.
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