Pediatric liver disease detected by imaging technique

A new study shows that MRE detects such chronic diseases as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is increasingly common in children and teens, affecting an estimated 13 percent of adolescents. NAFLD can lead to progressive liver disease and liver failure. Obesity is a major risk factor. This study is published in the Journal of Pediatrics. “Because many pediatrics patients in the United States with NAFLD are severely obese, MRE is likely to be superior to ultrasound-based elastography in this population, as ultrasound-based methods are less reliable in severely obese patients”, says Stavra Xanthakos, MD, a gastroenterologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and lead author of the study. “Having the ability to easily and non-invasively assess the degree of fibrosis in a child's liver could help us identify the issue early and being the right course of treatment in a timely and effective manner”, says Daniel Podberesky, MD, chief of thoracoabdominal imaging at Cincinnati Children's and a co-author of the study. “An added strength of magnetic resonance technology is the ability to more precisely measure liver fat, which allows us to non-invasively determine changes in liver fat quantity after clinical interventions”. “Our results show the exciting potential of MRE to improve clinical care and reduce dependence on liver biopsies, but it is not yet ready for primetime clinical use”, adds Dr. Xanthakos. “In addition to validation in larger pediatric cohorts, we still need to determine whether MRE can predict changes in liver disease over time. We hope to study MRE in patients to test how well changes in imaging correlate with changes in liver stiffness after treatment or lifestyle changes”.