Liver diffusion MR imaging findings in alcohol addicts

Alcohol consumption is known to be associated with many pathological conditions, especially in liver disease, which can result in death. Alcohol consumption can cause a wide spectrum of diseases as, alcoholic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular cancer by inducing liver fibrosis. The aim of this study, investigate the relationship with liver ADC values and potential early stage liver injury by comparing the values of the ADC obtained by liver diffusion-weighted MR imaging with alcoholics and healthy volunteers. In our study, we accepted 30 individuals with a history of excessive alcohol consumption and 25 healthy volunteers. In all cases, blood sampled for biochemical parameters and complete blood count and liver diffusion-weighted MR imaging was performed. In our study, 19 individuals with a history of excessive alcohol consumption and 20 healthy volunteers were included. Although statistically not significant difference between two groups, mean ADC values obtained by high b value (b 1000) diffusion-weighted imaging in alcoholics were lower than the control group(p= 0,47). Although no significant difference was observed between the two groups in terms of biochemical parameters; liver ADC values in both groups, positively correlated with INR, negatively correlated with GGT and ALP values(r= 0,002, r= -0,007, r= -0,049 respectively). As a result; we think that diffusion-weighted magnetic resonans imaging is a noninvasive imaging technique that can be used for detection and follow-up of liver fibrosis inducing by alcohol consumption. Keywords: alcohol, liver, diffusion-weighted magnetic resonans imaging