Hemodynamic analysis of hepatic arteries for the early evaluation of hepatic fibrosis in biliary atresia.

Hepatic fibrosis is the prominent characteristic of biliary atresia (BA), may even progress continually after Kasai procedure (KP). BA, as a devastating pediatric hepatic disease, mainly leads to newborn cholestasis, even liver cirrhosis, eventually hepatic failure. Earlier diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis, which used to be detected by liver biopsy commonly, is consistent with better outcomes of KP. Due to potential risks and uncertainty of liver biopsy, it is an urge to seek a safer and more precise evaluation method as alternative. The purpose of this study is to investigate the hemodynamics of hepatic artery (HA) in hepatic fibrosis of early BA based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for evaluating the value of CFD for hepatic fibrosis diagnosis. 40 patients were divided into three groups, including the control group, the abnormal liver function group and the mild to moderate hepatic fibrosis group. CFD was applied to quantify primary hemodynamic parameters of HA and related arteries, including blood flow distribution ratio (FDR), pressure, wall shear stress (WSS) and energy loss (EL). Statistical analyses were also performed to compare the differences amongst these above groups. With the progression of hepatic fibrosis, the increasing tendency of hemodynamic parameters values of HA and related arteries were observed. Values of FDR, pressure, WSS and EL of the mild to moderate group was higher than those of the control group and the abnormal liver function group. There were significant differences on FDRAA, FDRHA and EL between the control group and the mild to moderate hepatic fibrosis group (t = 0.037, 0.030 and <0.001, P < 0.05). Significant variations of HA hemodynamics acquired by CFD between the control group and the mild to moderate hepatic fibrosis group demonstrated the relationship between the progression of hepatic fibrosis and the hemodynamic disorder, and suggested that CFD had the potential to assist the diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis in early BA.