Iron overload in the liver diagnostic and quantification.

Hereditary Hemochromatosis is the most frequent modality of iron overload. Since 1996 genetic tests have facilitated significantly the non-invasive diagnosis of the disease. There are however many cases of negative genetic tests that require confirmation by hepatic iron quantification which is traditionally performed by hepatic biopsy.

MR quantification of hepatic iron concentration.

Purpose: To evaluate the accuracy of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in the quantification of hepatic iron concentration.

Materials And Methods: Between April 1999 and June 2001, 112 patients were recruited prospectively. All had undergone liver biopsy and hepatic iron concentration quantification with spectrophotometry, followed by MR imaging.