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Background: Brain edema and increased intracranial pressure worsen prognosis in patients with end-stage chronic cirrhosis.

Objective: To use diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) to quantify water apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) in different brain regions of patients with chronic liver failure with or without hepatic encephalopathy.

Methods: The authors studied 14 patients with viral liver cirrhosis and 12 sex- and age-matched healthy volunteers. Seven patients had no clinical evidence of hepatic encephalopathy; six had grade I hepatic encephalopathy; and one had grade II hepatic encephalopathy. Brain DWI was obtained using a single-shot echo-planar imaging sequence, and four gradient strengths (b values = 0, 300, 600, and 900 s/mm²) were applied to calculate the average diffusivity maps.

Results: Mean ADC values in the brains of patients with cirrhosis were significantly increased in all selected …