Cirrhosis is impaired liver function caused by formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis, due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repair and subsequent formation of scar tissue, which over time can replace normal functioning tissue leading to cirrhosis and impaired liver function.Early symptoms may include tiredness, weakness, loss of appetite, unexplained weight loss, nausea and vomiting, and discomfort in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen. Important criteria for determining the presence of cirrhosis in the clinical setting include (a) morphologic features of the liver (based on the atrophy or hypertrophy of various liver segments), (b) liver contours (irregular contour), (c) presence of nodules within the liver parenchyma, (d) the signal intensity of the liver as well as of the nodules, (e) the presence of fatty infiltration or iron, and (f) the presence of vascular and biliary tree abnormalitie. In evaluating liver lesions at imaging, the single most important step consists of evaluating the background liver for the presence of diffuse disease and determining the presence of cirrhosis.In the absence of cirrhosis, the differential diagnosis of a hypervascular liver lesion in particular is relatively extensive and may include benign liver lesions such arterioportal shunts, flash-filling hemangiomas, hepatocellular adenomas, and FNH, and malignant liver lesions including hypervascular metastases and HCCs.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Liver Cirrhosis