Özet:
OBJECTIVE: This study was de-signed to evaluate whether fat and iron affect the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of the liver parenchyma in the settings of fibro-sis and inflammation.PATIENTS AND METHODS: We evaluated the diffusion-weighted images (DWIs) of 58 pa-tients with chronic liver disease and 48 con-trol subjects. Liver specimens of patients were assessed for fibrosis, necroinflammation, iron, and steatosis. Liver ADCs, spleen ADCs, and normalized liver ADCs (defined as the ratio of the liver ADC to spleen ADC) values were an-alyzed after stratifying patients with either fi-brosis stages or histology activity index (HAI) scores. The relationship between ADC values and histopathological findings was studied us-ing multiple linear regression analysis.RESULTS: The median liver and normalized liver ADC values were significantly lower in higher stages of fibrosis and HAI scores. Com-pared to the control group, patients with the highest stages of fibrosis and inflammation had significantly higher spleen ADCs. The ef-fect of the fibrosis stage on liver ADC and nor-malized liver ADC values was significant in the setting of inflammation, whereas the degree of steatosis and iron grade did not affect these ADC values.CONCLUSIONS: ADC values can distinguish both later stages of liver fibrosis and inflam-mation. There is no significant effect of fat and iron on ADC values. Therefore, DWI may be re-liable in evaluating liver fibrosis and inflamma-tion.