STEDI-NASH

Nonalcoolic steatohepatitis causes an increasing number of hepatic cancers. It is characterized by hepatic steatosis, inflammation and hepatocyte ballooning, and can be associated with fibrosis. Some imaging methods can be used to diagnose steatosis, fibrosis or inflammation, but none is available for ballooning. STEDI-NASH aims to fill this need with temporal diffusion spectroscopy MRI, which enables to probe movements at the subcellular scale such as those generated by ballooning. The project starts with the development of a DTS MRI sequence and its multiplexing with MR elastography, supported by numeric and physical models. It is followed by an applicative, translational phase ex vivo and in vivo in mice. The project is completed with a proof of concept clinical study on a small number of patients. The STEDI-NASH consortium involves 4 high impact teams in modeling, imaging physics, applied imaging and clinical radiology.