Objective To investigate the value of the signal intensity of portal vein at hepatobiliary phase on gadoxetic acid liver enhancement imaging for accessing the liver function. Methods Ninety five subjects who underwent gadoxetic acid enhanced liver MR imaging due to suspicion of liver diseases between January 2015 and June 2016 at the First Hospital of Soochow University were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were classified into 4 groups based on their liver function: cirrhosis patients with Child-Pugh class A(n=50),B(n=19),C(n=6)and control group(n=20).All the patients had underwent the abdominal non-enhanced and gadoxetic acid enhanced MR imaging. The signal intensity (SI) of the portal vein at non-enhanced phase and hepatobiliary phase(delayed 20min)were recorded.The ratio of the portal vein to spleen were calculated.The nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare the differences in the SI of portal vein at non-enhanced and the ratio of portal vein to spleen at hepatobiliary phase among the four groups.Multiple regression analysis was applied to analyze the correlated predicting factors of the ratio of the portal vein to spleen at hepatobiliary phase. Results At non-enhanced phase, the SI ratio of portal vein had no significant difference(P>0.05).The ratio of the portal vein to spleen at hepatobiliary was significantly different (P<0.05). The ratio of the portal vein to spleen at hepatobiliary constantly and significantly decreased as the severity of liver dysfunction increased. The serum levels of albumin and platelet count were independent predictors of the ratio of the portal vein to spleen at hepatobiliary phase(P=0.002 and 0.007).Conclusions The ratio of the portal vein to spleen at hepatobiliary phase on gadoxetic acid enhanced MR imaging indicates the severity of liver dysfunction.It might be used as a tool to assess the liver function.