Viscoelastic parameters derived from multifrequency MR elastography for depicting hepatic fibrosis and inflammation in chronic viral hepatitis

The capability of MR elastography (MRE) to differentiate fibrosis and inflammation, and to provide precise diagnoses is crucial, whereas the coexistence of fibrosis and inflammation may obscure the diagnostic accuracy. In this retrospective study, from June 2020 to December 2022, chronic viral hepatitis patients who underwent multifrequency MRE (mMRE) were included in, and further divided into, training and validation cohorts. The hepatic viscoelastic parameters [shear wave speed (c) and loss angle (φ) of the complex shear modulus] were obtained from mMRE. The logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to evaluate performance of viscoelastic parameters for fibrosis and inflammation. A total of 233 patients were assigned to training cohort and validation cohorts (mean age, 52 years ± 13 (SD); 51 women; training cohort, n = 170 (73