The application performance of MRI-PDFF detection values of different hepatic lobes in diagnosing liver steatosis

Magnetic resonance imaging derived proton density fat fraction (MRI-PDFF) is becoming increasingly important for assessing liver steatosis, which is traditionally diagnosed via liver biopsy. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of MRI-PDFF in detecting liver steatosis by comparing its values from various liver lobes-the right posterior hepatic lobe (RPHL), right anterior hepatic lobe (RAHL), left inner hepatic lobe (LIHL), left outer hepatic lobe (LOHL), the mean value of four hepatic lobes (M-PDFF), and the highest value of four hepatic lobes (H-PDFF)-against biopsy results. The findings indicated that MRI-PDFF exhibited strong performances in identifying liver steatosis in 125 patients, with area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) values of 0.870 for RPHL, 0.875 for RAHL, 0.881 for LIHL, 0.871 for LOHL, 0.881 for M-PDFF, and 0.878 for H-PDFF. Furthermore, MRI-PDFF demonstrated significant advantages in detecting moderate-to-severe steatosis, achieving AUROC values of 0.897 for RPHL, 0.911 for RAHL, 0.905 for LIHL, 0.898 for LOHL, 0.907 for M-PDFF, and 0.904 for H-PDFF. Overall, MRI-PDFF is a highly accurate and noninvasive tool for diagnosing liver steatosis and determining its severity, making it valuable for clinical assessment and treatment.