Abstract: Objective The purpose of this study was to explore the clinical implications of magnetic resonance imaging multi-echo dixon technique in diagnosing hepatic steatosis in patients with metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). Methods 97 MAFLD patients and 46 healthy persons were enrolled in this study between June 2018 and October 2019, and the proton density fat fraction (PDFF) was detected by MRI ME Dixon technique. All patients with MAFLD underwent routine liver biopsies. The diagnostic efficacy of MRI-PDFF for severity of liver steatosis was analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results The BMI, serum ALT, AST, TG and TC levels as well as fat fraction (FF) in patients with MAFLD were (26.3±3.1)kg/m², (85.6±5.4)U/L, (76.5±4.9)U/L, (3.2±1.0)mmol/L, (7.4±1.2)mmol/L and (23.7±5.3)%, all significantly higher than 【(23.2±2.2) kg/m²,(28.3±3.5) U/L,(26.5±4.1)U/L,(1.5±0.4)mmol/L,(3.9±0.8)mmol/L and (10.3±3.9)%, respectively, P<0.05】 in the control; the FF in 28 patients with moderate and in 18 patients with severe hepatic steatosis were (25.3±5.5)% and (44.7±6.7)%, both significantly higher than 【(15.5±4.0)%, P<0.05】 in 51 patients with mild hepatic steatosis; the area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of FF in diagnosing mild, moderate and severe hepatic steatosis were0.728(95%CI:0.628-0.829), 0.870(95%CI:0.784-0.957) and 0.996(95%CI:0.985-1.000), when 16.4%, 26.4% and 44.6% was set as the cut-off-value.Conclusion MRI multi-echo dixon technique is of importance in diagnosing hepatic steatosis in patients with MAFLD, which warrants further investigation.

Key words: Metabolic associated fatty liver disease, Magnetic resonance imaging, Multi-echo dixon technique, Hepatic steatosis, Diagnosis