WE‐EF‐210‐05: Diagnosis and Quantification of Liver Steatosis with Quantitative Ultrasound Backscatter Technique

Abstract

Purpose:Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of chronic liver disease in the United States, affects 30% of adult Americans and may progress to more serious diseases. Liver biopsy is the standard method for diagnosing NAFLD. MRI can accurately diagnose and quantify hepatic steatosis but is expensive. Sonography with qualitative interpretation by radiologists is lower cost, more accessible but less sensitive for detection. The objective of this study, using MRI proton density fat fraction (PDFF) as reference, is to assess the accuracy for diagnosing and quantifying steatosis with two quantitative US parameters‐‐ backscatter coefficient (BSC) and attenuation coefficient (AC)‐‐derived from RF signals using the calibration phantom technique.Methods:We performed a prospective, cross‐sectional analysis of a cohort of adults (n=204) with NAFLD (MRI‐PDFF≥5%) and without NAFLD (controls). Subjects underwent MRI‐PDFF and BSC and AC US analyses of the liver on the same day. Patients were randomly assigned to training (n=102, mean age 51±17 years, mean body mass index 31±7 kg/m2) and validation (n=102, mean age 49±17 years, body mass index 30±6 kg/m2) groups; 69% of patients in each group had NAFLD.Results:BSC provided AUC 0.98 (95% CI 0.95–1.00, p<0.0001) for diagnosis of NAFLD; the optimal BSC cut‐off provided sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values (PPV, NPV) of 87%, 91%, 95%, and 76%, respectively. AC provided AUC 0.89 (95% CI 0.81–0.96, p<0.0001) for diagnosis of steatosis; the optimal AC cut‐off provided sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV of 80%, 84%, 92%, and 66%, respectively. BSC and AC both correlated significantly with MRI‐PDFF (P<0.0001).Conclusion:QUS BSC and AC can accurately diagnose and quantify hepatic steatosis, using MRI‐PDFF as reference. With further validation, QUS may emerge as an inexpensive, widely available tool for NAFLD assessment.General support: NIH R01 CA111289, K23 ‐DK090303, AmerGastroAssoc Found, TF Williams Scholarship, S3000 scanner loaned by Siemens, Sucampo, JA Hartford Found, Atlantic Philanthropies Amer Gastroenterological Assoc. Agencies had no role in design/conduct of study, collection, management, analysis or interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.