Predicting post-hepatectomy liver failure with whole-liver histogram analysis on T1 maps of gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI

Motivation: Current clinical modalities still have several limitations for accurately predicting post-hepatectomy liver failure (PHLF). Goal(s): To explore more effective non-invasive tools to quantitatively predict PHLF. Approach: The performances of the hematological tests, the indocyanine green (ICG) clearance test and the newly-based albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) scoring system for predicting PHLF were compared with that of whole-liver histogram analysis on gadoxetic acid-enhanced T1 maps. Results: Whole-liver histogram analysis on gadoxetic acid-enhanced T1 maps had a better performance than the ICG clearance test and ALBI scoring system. It also showed potential for stratifying preoperative liver function. Impact: The histogram parameters extracted from whole-liver regions of interest (ROI) on gadoxetic acid-enhanced T1 maps were proved to be effective and non-invasive tools for assessing liver function. Further accurate liver function assessment based on sectional histogram analysis is promising.