Voxel-Wise Analysis of Paediatric Liver MRI

Paediatric liver disease is a growing problem, which would benefit from non-invasive techniques for early detection and treatment monitoring. Multiparametric quantitative MRI has shown promise for measuring liver steatosis, inflammation and fibrosis in adults, but is likely to need modification for children. The Kids4LIFe project (NCT03198104) aims to adapt and validate LiverMultiScan\(^\mathrm{TM}\) from Perspectum Diagnostics for paediatric applications, characterising healthy liver development and a range of diseases. The analysis of LiverMultiScan\(^\mathrm{TM}\) images usually focuses on a few regions of interest, or on distributional features of the segmented liver parenchyma. The present work is an initial investigation into the use of voxel-wise statistical analysis in atlas space, following nonlinear image registration, with the aim of localising effects (developmental or disease-related), as commonly done in neuroimaging. Preliminary results show statistically significant effects that warrant further characterisation, and suggest atlas-based analysis is a useful complement to current approaches.