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Summary: Background: Retrospective studies report that visualisation of the liver may be severely limited using ultrasound (US), potentially contributing to diminished sensitivity for detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and cirrhosis, but there are limited prospective data. Aims: To compare liver visualisation scores prospectively for US and abbreviated hepatobiliary phase (HBP) magnetic resonance imaging (AMRI) in a cohort of participants with NAFLD cirrhosis and a clinical indication for HCC surveillance. Methods: This prospective multicenter study included 54 consecutive participants (67% women) with NAFLD cirrhosis who underwent contemporaneous US as well as HBP‐AMRI with gadoxetic acid. Primary outcome was the proportion of imaging examinations with severe limitations in liver visualisation (visualisation score C) compared head‐to‐head between US and AMRI. Results: The mean (± standard deviation) age was 63.3 years (±8.4) and body mass index was 32.0 kg/m2 (±6.0). Nineteen participants (35%) had severe visualisation limitations on US, compared with 10 (19%) with AMRI, p < 0.0001. Nine (17%) participants had <90% of the liver visualised on US, compared with only 1 (2%) participant with AMRI, p < 0.0001. Obesity was a strong and independent predictor for severe visualisation limitation on US (OR 5.1, CI 1.1–23.1, p = 0.03), after adjustment for age, sex and ethnicity. Conclusion: More than one‐third of participants with NAFLD cirrhosis had severe visualisation limitations on US for HCC screening, compared with one‐sixth on AMRI. US adequacy should be reported in all clinical studies and when suboptimal then AMRI may be considered for HCC screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to estimate parameters determining liver triglyceride composition (TC) using 1H MRS and to assess how TC estimability is affected by proton density fat fraction (PDFF) in adults with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In this prospective single‐site study, 199 adults with known or suspected NAFLD in whom other causes of liver disease were excluded underwent two 1H MRS STimulated Echo Acquisition Method (STEAM) sequences at 3 T. A respiratory‐gated water‐suppressed free breathing sequence (TE 10 ms, 16 signal averages) was used to assess TC in terms of the number of double bonds (ndb) and methylene‐interrupted double bonds (nmidb), and a single breath‐hold‐long TR, multi‐TE sequence (TR 3500 ms), which acquired five single average spectra over TE 10‐30 ms, was used to estimate liver PDFF. Ndb and nmidb estimability was qualitatively assessed for each case and summarized descriptively. The consistency of ndb and nmidb estimation was examined using ROC analysis. The relationship between ndb and nmidb values and PDFF was presented graphically. Quality‐of‐fit of ndb and nmidb versus PDFF was evaluated by Pearson‐r correlation. A significance level of 0.05 was used. In 263 1H MRS examinations performed on 199 adult participants, ndb and nmidb were successfully estimated in 7/53 (13.2%) examinations with PDFF < 4%, 13/30 (43.3%) examinations with PDFF between 4% and 7%, 33/41 (80.5%) examinations with PDFF between 7% and 10%, and 124/139 (89.2%) examinations with PDFF > 10% (maximum PDFF 38.1%). Liver TC could be estimated consistently for PDFF > 6.7%. Both ndb and nmidb decreased with increasing PDFF (ndb = 2.83‐0.0160·PDFF, r = ‐0.449, P < 0.0001); nmidb = 0.75‐0.0088·PDFF, r = ‐0.350, P < 0.0001). In a cohort of adults with known or suspected NAFLD, liver TC becomes more saturated as PDFF increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]