Abstract: Objective This study was conducted to explore application of splenic Gamna-Gandy vesicles by fast recovery fast spin echo pulse (FRFSE) sequence of MRI in predicting esophageal and gastric varices (EGV) in patients with hepatitis B-induced liver cirrhosis (LC). Methods 80 patients with hepatitis B-induced LC were encountered in our hospital between January 2020 and December 2022, and all underwent gastroscopy and MR scan. The portal vain diameters, splenic index and Gamna-Gandy bodies were determined and calculated under different MR sequences. The diagnostic performance was evaluated byreceiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). Results Among the 80 patients with LC, the gastroscopy found mild EGV in 23 cases, and moderate to severe EGV in 41 cases; the splenic Gamna-Gandy body positive rate and the number of greater than 3mm Gamna-Gandy body revealed by MR FRFSE sequence were 61.2% and (4.8±1.4), both significantly higher or greater than by T1W1, T2W1 or enhanced MR scan (P＜0.05); the portal vain diameter, splenic index and numbers of Gamna-Gandy bodies in patients with moderate to severe EGV were (17.6±2.1)mm, (158.9±32.6)mm³and (5.5±1.6), all significantly higher than [(14.6±1.2)mm,(119.6±10.6)mm³ and (3.2±1.0), respectively, P＜0.05] in patients with mild EGV; the ROC analysis showed that the AUC was 0.923, with sensitivity of 93.9% and specificity of 83.9%, when splenic Gamna-Gandy body greater than 4.7 was set as the cut-off-value in predicting the existence of moderate to severe EGV in patients with LC, much superior to portal diameter or splenic index did(P<0.05). Conclusion Thesplenic Gamna-Gandy body showed by FRFSE sequence of MRI might be used as a noninvasive tool for screening EGV in patients with hepatitis B-induced LC.

Key words: Liver cirrhosis, Esophageal and gastric varices, MRI, Fast recovery fast spin echo sequence, Splenic Gamna-Gandy vesicles, Diagnosis