Magnetic resonance spectroscopy for quantitative analysis of fatty liver disease: a systematic review

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a sensitive and non-invasive imaging method that provides information about the metabolite variations due to pathological damages. In this study, we aimed to systematically review studies in which the MRS had been used for quantitative analysis of steatohepatitis.
PubMed and Scopus were methodically searched in June 2015 with following search method (((magnetic resonance spectroscopy OR MR spectroscopy OR MRS)) AND (hepatic steatosis OR steatohepatitis OR fatty liver)) AND Quantitative) to find relevant documents in which the diagnostic value of MRS had been investigated in patients with hepatic steatosis. Obtainable information were extracted and used for further evaluation based on the main purpose of this study.
Of 88 articles found in the PubMed and 328 found in the Scopus, only 10 relevant documents were selected and used for data extraction according to inclusion/exclusion criteria. Of total 2963 participants enrolled in the selected studies, 1428 were male and 1535 were female. The results of this review showed that MRS is reliable technique for quantitative assessment of steatohepatitis.
Findings showed that MRS as a non-invasive imaging method can quantitatively determine even small changes of metabolites due to pathological damages. As well, findings suggested that the results obtained by MR spectroscopy can be considered as reference standard in quantitative analysis. Based on the results of studied documents, MRS as a sensitive tool is helpful in the quantitative assessment of patients with fatty liver disease.