Objectives:

To explore the feasibility of ultrasound-derived fat fraction (UDFF) measurement in adult patients in whom fatty liver was suspected.

Methods

: In this prospective study

participants were initially enrolled in Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine between January and February 2023 and received UDFF measurements. UDFF measurement was performed three times to obtain UDFF values

from each imaging location (Ⅴ hepatic segment and Ⅷ hepatic segment) per participant

and the depth (skin-to-capsule distance) was automatically measured. The median of the acquired overall median UDFF values was used for statistical analysis. The Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC)

Spearman’s correlation test

and Bland-Altman plot were performed to assess the repeatability and reproducibility of UDFF measurement.

Results:

Totally

38 participants were included in this study

and the UDFF value of the participants was 6.5% (4.0%

15.6%). Participants with fatty liver had a UDFF value of 15.8% (9.6%

17.5%)

significantly higher than that of participants without fatty liver

4.0% (3.6%

4.9%) (

P

＜0.001). The UDFF values from the three times UDFF acquisitions obtained during each ultrasound examination showed excellent agreement (ICC=0.882

95% CI 0.833-0.919). The spearman correlation of UDFFs in different depths was moderate (

r

=0.546

P

＜0.001). No significant differences in UDFF values were found between Ⅴ hepatic segment and Ⅷ hepatic segment (

P

=0.697).

Conclusion:

UDFF is a feasibility non-invasive imaging tool for the detection of hepatic steatosis.