The scans of 40 patients were reviewed for the study (32 women and 8 men; mean age, 40 years). As noted previously, patients with preexisting renal conditions were excluded.
The calculated mean (SD) H/R ratio of the 40 patients reviewed for this study was 3.61 (2.32), a moderate increase in value relative to the diagnostic cutoff of greater than 1.49 for HS used in a previous study.
8 Thirty-four patients (85%) had an H/R ratio greater than 1.5, whereas 6 patients (15%) had an H/R ratio less than 1.5. Hepatic parenchyma had a proportionally larger mean (SD) value compared with the renal cortex mean (SD) pixel value (52.82 [15.34] vs 19.93 [10.39];
P<.001) after retrospective computerized image analysis. An unpaired
t test confirmed a significant difference in pixel intensity between tissues of liver and renal cortex (
P<.001). The computerized H/R ratio of the patients suggested significant presence of HS in the rural communities studied (
Figure 2). The ICC for inter- and intraobserver reliability in computing the H/R ratio was
r=0.94 for observer 1 vs observer 2;
r=0.931 for observer 1 vs observer 1; and
r=0.998 for observer 2 vs observer 2, respectively (
Table).