Optical analysis of computed tomography images of the liver predicts fibrosis stage and distribution in chronic hepatitis C

Abstract

This study was undertaken to evaluate an image processing method for assessing liver fibrosis in conventional computed tomography (CT) scans in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Two cohorts (designated "estimation," n ‫؍‬ 34; and "validation," n ‫؍‬ 107) of chronic hepatitis C patients were assessed using digitized conventional helical CT. Weighted CT mean fibrosis (Fibro-CT) was calculated as a nonlinear weighted mean F-score for each sample.

Non-invasive assessment of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C

“…The theoretical advantages of these methods include the ability to analyze almost the entire liver and the applicability to patients with obesity or ascites. Preliminary studies in human subjects have confirmed the feasibility of these techniques for quantitative assessment of hepatic fibrosis [115][116][117][118][119]. In addition, a recent prospective comparative study in 96 patients with chronic liver disease [120] has suggested that MR elastography had a better diagnostic accuracy than TE for the diagnosis of significant fibrosis (AUROC: 0.99 vs. 0.84, respectively P \ 0.05).…”

Dual-Phase Computed Tomography for Assessment of Pancreatic Fibrosis and Anastomotic Failure Risk Following Pancreatoduodenectomy

“…[18][19][20][21][22]27 Recently, it has been shown that CT or magnetic resonance (MR) perfusion imaging can detect microcirculatory changes caused by collagen deposits in the liver and pancreas. [18][19][20]22,28,29 Romero-Gomez et al 28 studied liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C and concluded that optical digital analysis of conventional CT images is effective in determining the stage and distribution of liver fibrosis. Ronot et al 29 examined 52 patients with chronic hepatitis C who underwent perfusion CT and liver biopsy at the same time.…”

Thalidomide with peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin in the treatment of non-responders genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C patients: proof of concept

“…The difference in the results of this trial and results of multiple case reports of Caseiro regarding the SVR may be multifactorial: firstly, all Caseiro's patients were nonresponsive to previous conventional IFN/RBV therapy and retreated with Peg-IFN-α/RBV. Data from the clinical trials of retreatment with Peg-IFN-α/RBV in patients who were nonresponsive to previous IFN-α/RBV, referred to that SVR rates ranged from 8 to 35% (48)(49)(50)and these rates were generally higher than the reported rates (6 to 8%) (28,32) in prior non-responders to Peg-IFN-α/RBV retreated by the same regimen for 48 weeks as in our trial. So, we can't exclude that the difference is related to difference in modality of treatment.…”