Evaluation of the Accuracy of Liver Fat Quantification by CT, MRI and US in Comparison to the Non-invasive Standard of Reference Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS)

Diffuse liver disease afflicts an estimated 80 million people in the United States, alone. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), an early feature of diffuse liver disease, is fatty infiltration of hepatocytes (steatosis), which often leads to inflammation and fibrosis, and potentially cirrhosis. Noninvasive methods have been developed in recent years to quantify NAFLD using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), and ultrasound (US). However, a study comparing the accuracy of these three techniques to an established standard of reference like MR spectroscopy (MRS) remains to be performed. The overall goal of our work is to perform a pilot study to compare non-invasive quantitative biomarkers for accurate detection and quantitative assessment of hepatic steatosis, using MRI, CT and US.