Fibrosis evaluation of animal liver tissue by thermal conduction

Abstract

Hepatic fibrosis is a condition that alters normal structure and composition of the liver. Long term, it leads to complications such as cirrhosis; an advanced stage of chronic liver diseases, which in turn can drive to hepatocarcinoma (liver cancer). Hence, knowing the fibrosis degree is an important clinical data that can help in the prognosis and treatment of liver diseases. This work is focused in evaluating the thermal performance of 16 samples of rat liver tissue graded in different fibrosis degrees, as an alternate method to know how these properties change as the disease progresses. A heat sensor based on photo-thermal deflection was used. The thermal response was compared to the fibrosis degree in the METAVIR score, as evaluated by a group of experimented observers.