Assessment of Patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease In Vivo Using Ultrashort Echo Time Magnetization Transfer (UTE-MT)

Motivation: UTE-MT is suggested to indirectly assess macromolecular contents in both short and long T2 tissues, which may have the potential to assess non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Goal(s): To utilize the UTE-MT technique to assess the patients with NAFLD. Approach: A total of 40 subjects were recruited (20 with NAFLD and 20 without NAFLD) and underwent UTE-MT scans on a 3T MRI scanner. Results: The liver UTE-MTR value of NAFLD patients was significantly lower than that of normal ones (P<0.001). The ROC analysis between NAFLD patients and normal controls showed a high AUC value of 0.953. Impact: The UTE-MT technique can be utilized for the assessment of macromolecular content changes in NAFLD livers. The UTE-MTR may serve as a promising biomarker for screening patients with NAFLD.