Editorial for "An Empirical Approach to Derive Water T1 From Multiparametric MR Images Using an Automated Pipeline and Comparison With Liver Stiffness".

This article discusses the development of a noninvasive method for diagnosing and classifying nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). NAFLD is a liver disease characterized by the accumulation of fat, and it can range from simple steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with inflammation and fibrosis. The traditional method for diagnosing NAFLD is liver biopsy, which is invasive and has limitations. The authors of this study propose a method that measures liver T1 values corrected for iron and fat content, called "water T1," using an empirical model calibrated in a phantom. The method was tested on healthy subjects and patients with diabetes mellitus, and the corrected T1 values showed good agreement with the reference values obtained from proton MR spectroscopy. The study is a significant step towards developing a noninvasive MRI protocol for diagnosing and classifying NAFLD. However, the study has limitations, including a small sample size and the empirical nature of the correction model. [Extracted from the article]