MRI multicomponent relaxometry for liver fibrosis, inflammation, and steatosis in nonalcoholic…

Cohort studyEuropean journal of radiology· Sep 2026

MRI multicomponent relaxometry for liver fibrosis, inflammation, and steatosis in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis: A prospective study.

Hilton Leao Filho, Claudia Pinto Oliveira, Flair José Carrilho … Manoel de Souza Rocha

Gastrointestinal & Liver PathologyCohort studyDiagnosisQ1IF 4.0

Contrast-free MRI marker detects liver fibrosis in MASH with high accuracy.

MRI multicomponent relaxometry for liver fibrosis, inflammation, and steatosis in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis: A prospective study.

Hilton Leao Filho … Manoel de Souza Rocha

European journal of radiology · Sep 2026 · Q1 in General Medicine

Purpose

To validate contrast-free MRI multicomponent relaxometry (multicomponent relaxometry) for noninvasive quantification of fibrosis, inflammation, steatosis, and iron in biopsy-proven metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), formerly nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (nonalcoholic steatohepatitis).

Methods

In this prospective single-center study, adults with biopsy-confirmed MASH underwent MRI within 6 months of biopsy; healthy volunteers served as controls.

n = 122 participants

Results

fibrosis detection accuracy is near-perfect, 1.0 would be flawless

85%

Sensitivity

100%

Specificity

More results

122 participants: 106 MASH patients (68 women, 38 men; mean age 50.5 ± 11.4 years) and 16 controls (7 women, 9 men; 33.6 ± 6.2 years).

PDFF correlated with steatosis (rs = 0.72; area under the ROC 0.96), and R2* w with iron (rs = 0.52; area under the ROC 0.97).

More results

Interobserver agreement was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient: ECNV wf 0.973; R2* w 0.979; PDFF 0.994).

“

Conclusion

Contrast-free multicomponent relaxometry enables accurate detection of fibrosis and comprehensive characterization of inflammation, fat, and iron in MASH, warranting further multicenter studies.

MRI multicomponent relaxometry for liver fibrosis, inflammation, and steatosis in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis: A prospective study.

MRI multicomponent relaxometry for liver fibrosis, inflammation, and steatosis in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis: A prospective study.

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