Korean J Gastroenterol.  1998 Oct;32(4):500-507.

Evaluation of Magnetic Resonance Image of the Brain Suggestive of Hepatic Encephalopathy

• Jung HK
• Yi SY
• Lee HC
• Choi HY

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a neurologic disturbance which complicates the liver cirrhosis. Early diagnosis and proper treatment of HE are important to maintain normal brain function. Recently, it has been postulated that T1-Weighted (T1W) high-intensity signal of MRI in basal ganglia may be related to porto-systemic encephalopathy. The aim of our study was to examine whether high-signal intensity signals in the basal ganglia on T1W images were related to hepatic encephalopathy.
METHODS
For twenty-five patients with liver cirrhosis and twenty normal controls, their clinical history and results of physical and neurologic examination, laboratory studies, abdomen USG and brain MRI were examined. The T1W-high signal intensity was quantitated using the contrast noise ratio.
RESULTS
The high signal intensity in basal ganglia on TIW images was increased in cirrhosis group (p<0.05) in comparison with that of control group. However, the increased signal intensity was not observed in white matter. There was no significant difference among the T1-signal intensities in Child-Pugh classifications. The T1W signal intensity did not correlate with previous hepatic encephalopathy, etiology of liver cirrhosis, ammonia level and bilirubin level.
CONCLUSIONS
The high-signal intensity in the basal ganglia on T1W MRI is observed in patients with liver cirrhosis, but it may not be an indicator of hepatic encephalopathy.

Keyword

Liver cirrhosis; Hepatic encephalopathy; Brain MRI