Relationship between liver fat fraction,abdominal fat volume and carotid plaque in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease based on MRI IDEAL-IQ
WU Xue
SHU Jian
MIN Fan
WEN Yilian
Abstract：Objective To explore the relationship between hepatic fat fraction(HFF),abdominal fat volume,and carotid ar-tery plaque by using the technology namely iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and the least squares es-timation quantification sequence(IDEAL-IQ)to measure the HFF and the volume of abdominal fat in patients suffering from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD).Methods 98 patients with NAFLD were divided into the normal carotid artery group(n=53),the intima-media thickening group(n=13),and the plaque group(n=32)according to the results of carotid ultrasound examination.MRI IDEAL-IQ scans of the upper abdominal were performed to measure the HFF of liver segments(S1-S8),the volume of visceral adipose tissue(VAT),and subcutaneous adipose tissue(SAT)at L1-L2 intervertebral space.Clinical data,liver function,and other laboratory test results were collected.The differences in clinical data,HFF,VAT volume,SAT vol-ume,total fat(VAT+SAT)volume,and related fat ratio were compared between the three groups.Logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify the risk factors for carotid atherosclerosis in NAFLD patients.Results The comparison of clinical data of the three groups showed that there were statistically significant differences in age,TG,and ALT(P<0.05).The compari-son of image data among the three groups showed that S2-HFF and HFF/SAT volume in the carotid intima-media thickening group were lower than those in the normal carotid artery group(P<0.05).Age(OR=1.141,95%CI:1.081～1.203,P<0.001)and ALT(OR=0.979,95%CI:0.959～1.000,P<0.05)were independent risk factors for carotid atherosclerosis in NAFLD pa-tients.Conclusion The S2-HFF and HFF/SAT volume measured quantitatively by IDEAL-IQ were different in NAFLD pa-tients with carotid atherosclerosis,and the values were relatively low in the intima-media thickening group that might be associ-ated with early atherosclerosis.
Keywords：Magnetic resonance imagingNon-alcoholic fatty liver diseaseHepatic fat fractionAbdominal fat volumeCa-rotid artery plaque
Publication Date：2026-01-30
Online Publishing Date：2026-03-20(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 96-100,105 )