Viability testing of transplantation donor liver by 1H NMR relaxometry.

We present preliminary results of water proton relaxation time measurements on perfused, cold-stored rat livers as a basis of a simple method for testing the viability of human donor livers in liver transplantation surgery. Proton T1 and T2 data correlated strongly (p less than 0.01) with bile flow measurements, indicating that relaxation times reflect organ viability and therefore might be used for rapid testing of donor livers shortly before transplantation.