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• Review •
Progress in MRI evaluation of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
LIU Guanchen  ZHANG Hongxia 

Cite this article as: LIU G C, ZHANG H X. Progress in MRI evaluation of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2024, 15(9): 201-204. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2024.09.035.


[Abstract] Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common cause of chronic liver disease. NAFLD is divided into two main subtypes, non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). NASH is a progressive form of NAFLD that can further promote liver fibrosis and increase the risk of developing cirrhosis, so accurately distinguishing between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and NASH and assessing the extent of liver inflammation and fibrosis is critical to prevent progression and adverse outcomes of the disease. MRI is a non-invasive method of liver evaluation, which can provide anatomical, functional and metabolic information of the liver, and is of great value in the diagnosis and staging of NAFLD. This review introduces the technical principles of magnetic resonance imaging proton density fat fraction (MRI-PDFF), magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) and longitudinal relaxation time quantitative imaging (T1 mapping), and summarizes the research status of these quantitative imaging techniques in the evaluation of NAFLD. This review aims to discuss the advantages and challenges of MR quantitative imaging in the assessment of NAFLD, and provide new research ideas for quantifying the pathological changes of NAFLD.
[Keywords] non-alcoholic fatty liver disease；liver fibrosis；magnetic resonance imaging；quantitative evaluation

LIU Guanchen   ZHANG Hongxia*  

Imaging Center of Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin 150081, China

Corresponding author: ZHANG H X, E-mail: zhanghongxia2k@163.com

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2024-04-24
Accepted  2024-08-09
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2024.09.035
Cite this article as: LIU G C, ZHANG H X. Progress in MRI evaluation of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2024, 15(9): 201-204. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2024.09.035.

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