Abstract

Magnetic resonance imaging fatty liver changes following surgical, lifestyle or drug treatments in obese, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or non-alcoholic steatohepatitis subjects

Author(s): Mark W Tengowski*, Thomas Fuerst & Claude B Sirlin

With an increasing insulin resistance and obesity epidemic, various intervention trials aiming to reduce liver fat levels are using non-invasive MRI methods as alternatives to repeated biopsies to measure the changes in liver fat levels in controlled clinical trials. MRI and MRS exploit differences in the resonance frequencies of signals from protons in fat and water to quantify liver, fat depot and/or muscle fractional fat content in a highly reproducible manner. Various clinical trials have reported the baseline liver fat values and ranges along with the changes in fat levels following different surgical, nutritional, lifestyle or pharmaceutical interventions.