Research advances in quantitative evaluation of liver fat in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

In recent years, numerous researches have been done on quantification of the liver fat in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) using noninvasive techniques, particularly by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Various MR methods for quantifying liver fat in NAFLD patients have been developed in recent 10 years. The advantages and disadvantages of these methods, including MR spectroscopy and MR imaging, are described and summarized. IDEAL-IQ and MRI-estimated proton density fat fraction help to achieve precise quantitative evaluation of liver fat, providing basis and reference for further research on quantification of liver fat in NAFLD patients