Imaging Features of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Children and Adolescents

Non-invasive diagnosis and quantification of liver steatosis is important to overcome limits of liver biopsy, in order to follow up patients during their therapy and to establish a reference standard that can be used in clinical trials and longitudinal studies. Imaging offers several methods in this setting: ultrasound, which is the cheapest technique and easy to perform; magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), which reflects the real content of triglycerides in a specific volume; and proton density fat fraction (PDFF) magnetic resonance, which is a simple method that reflects the distribution of the fat in the whole liver. Other techniques include ultrasound elastography (EUS) and magnetic resonance elastrography (MRE), which can evaluate the progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) into non-alcoholic steato-hepatitis (NASH) and cirrhosis, by quantifying liver fibrosis.