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Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) incidence is rapidly increasing. Objective: Our study aimed to assess diabetic and non-diabetic NAFLD using non-invasive imaging tools; conventional US, Chemical shift MRI, and MRE to evaluate the degree of liver steatosis and fibrosis. Patients and methods: In this case-control study, a total of 130 subjects including 90 NAFLD patients {50 diabetic (Group I) & 40 non-diabetic (Group II), as well as 40 controls (Group III) }, were enrolled. The mean age in the present study was 51.46 ± 7.54 years in group I, 48.40 ± 7.47 years in group II, and 49.55 ± 7.95 years in group III (controls). Most of our subjects were females (78%, 77.5%, and 65% in groups I, II, and III respectively). Assessment of liver steatosis was done using conventional US and chemical shift (in-phase and out-of-phase) MR imaging. Assessment of liver stiffness to detect the degree of fibrosis/cirrhosis was done using magnetic resonance enterography (MRE). Results: Diabetic NAFLD patients (group I) had a higher degree of liver steatosis (scores 2 and 3), measured by conventional US, compared to group II (non-diabetic NAFLD). Group I patients had a significantly higher degree of liver steatosis (p = 0.007), measured by chemical shift (in-phase and out-phase) MRI, compared to group II. Liver stiffness measurement by MRE was significantly higher (p = 0.038) in group I (Mean 2.88 ± 0.81 kPa) than in group II (mean 2.46 ± 0.71kPa). Liver fibrosis (≥ F2) was significantly higher (p = 0.021) in group 1 (20 of 50 patients (40%)) than in group II (7 of 40 patients (17.5%)). Conclusions: Current non-invasive imaging methods demonstrated their value as non-invasive imaging biomarkers to evaluate the degree of liver steatosis in NAFLD and its progression into fibrosis/cirrhosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately 130 attendees convened on February 19-22, 2012 for the first ISMRM-sponsored workshop on water-fat imaging. The motivation to host this meeting was driven by the increasing number of research publications on this topic over the past decade. The scientific program included an historical perspective and a discussion of the clinical relevance of water-fat MRI, a technical description of multiecho pulse sequences, a review of data acquisition and reconstruction algorithms, a summary of the confounding factors that influence quantitative fat measurements and the importance of MRI-based biomarkers, a description of applications in the heart, liver, pancreas, abdomen, spine, pelvis, and muscles, an overview of the implications of fat in diabetes and obesity, a discussion on MR spectroscopy, a review of childhood obesity, the efficacy of lifestyle interventional studies, and the role of brown adipose tissue, and an outlook on federal funding opportunities from the National Institutes of Health. Magn Reson Med, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]