Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 21, 2016; 22(39): 8812-8819
Published online Oct 21, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i39.8812
Comparison of magnetic resonance spectroscopy, proton density fat fraction and histological analysis in the quantification of liver steatosis in children and adolescents
Michele Di Martino, Lucia Pacifico, Mario Bezzi, Rossella Di Miscio, Beatrice Sacconi, Claudio Chiesa, Carlo Catalano
Michele Di Martino, Mario Bezzi, Rossella Di Miscio, Beatrice Sacconi, Carlo Catalano, Department of Radiological Sciences, Oncology and Anatomical Pathology, “Sapienza” University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy
Lucia Pacifico, Department of Pediatrics and Child Neuropsychiatry, “Sapienza” University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy
Claudio Chiesa, Institute of Translational Pharmacology, National Research Council, 00133 Rome, Italy
Author contributions: Di Martino M and Pacifico L contributed to study conception and design; Di Miscio R and Sacconi B contributed to data acquisition; Di Martino M, Pacifico L and Bezzi M contributed to data analysis and interpretation, and writing of article; Bezzi M, Chiesa C and Catalano C contributed to editing, reviewing and final approval of article.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the “Sapienza” University of Rome Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Nothing to disclosure.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Michele Di Martino, PhD, MD, Department of Radiological Sciences, Oncology and Anatomical Pathology, “Sapienza” University of Rome, V.le Regina Elena 324, 00161 Roma, Italy. micdimartino@hotmail.it
Telephone: +39-6-49974511 Fax: +39-6-490243
Received: May 4, 2016
Peer-review started: May 5, 2016
First decision: May 27, 2016
Revised: June 30, 2016
Accepted: July 31, 2016
Article in press: July 31, 2016
Published online: October 21, 2016
Processing time: 168 Days and 21.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Differentiating normal from pathologic liver fat storage in children could depend on technical measurements. Using MR-spectroscopy, a cut-off value of 6% demonstrates the best diagnostic performance, otherwise magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-PDFF cut-off value of 3.5% better discriminates normal weight from obese children. It is confirmed that MRS is an accurate and precise method for detecting non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children. However, MRI-PDFF- is a feasible alternative to MRS for quantifying liver steatosis.