Cytokeratin 19 (CK19) is a molecular marker of hepatic stem cells and bile duct cells. Studies have indicated that the expression of CK19 plays a key role in chemotherapeutic resistance/stem cell immunophenotype of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC),which indicates a poor prognosis. Therefore,accurate identification of the expression of CK19 in HCC before treatment can provide important information for the choice of treatment in the future. MRI plays an important role in the diagnosis,staging and prognosis assessment of HCC. Radiomics can extract a large number of high-dimensional quantitative features from multimodal medical images,which is helpful to evaluate CK19 more objectively. This article reviews the research progress and prospect of imaging in the diagnosis of CK19-positive HCC in recent years.

Cytokeratin 19 (CK19) is a molecular marker of hepatic stem cells and bile duct cells. Studies have indicated that the expression of CK19 plays a key role in chemotherapeutic resistance/stem cell immunophenotype of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC),which indicates a poor prognosis. Therefore,accurate identification of the expression of CK19 in HCC before treatment can provide important information for the choice of treatment in the future. MRI plays an important role in the diagnosis,staging and prognosis assessment of HCC. Radiomics can extract a large number of high-dimensional quantitative features from multimodal medical images,which is helpful to evaluate CK19 more objectively. This article reviews the research progress and prospect of imaging in the diagnosis of CK19-positive HCC in recent years.