Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and the risk of progression to steatohepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma have been identified as major public health concerns. We have demonstrated the feasibility and potential value of measuring liver fat content by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a large population in this study of 4,949 participants (aged 45-73 years) in the UK Biobank imaging enhancement. Despite requirements for only a single ( 3min) scan of each subject, liver fat was able to be measured as the MRI proton density fat fraction (PDFF) with an overall success rate of 96.4%. The overall hepatic fat distribution was centred between 1-2%, and was highly skewed towards higher fat content. The mean PDFF was 3.91%, and median 2.11%. Analysis of PDFF in conjunction with other data fields available from the UK Biobank Resource showed associations of increased liver fat with greater age, BMI, weight gain, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes. Subjects with BMI less than 25 kg/m 2 had a low risk (5%) of high liver fat (PDFF > 5.5%), whereas in the higher BMI population (>30 kg/m 2 ) the prevalence of high liver fat was approximately 1 in 3. These data suggest that population screening to identify people with high PDFF is possible and could be cost effective. MRI based PDFF is an effective method for this. Finally, although cross sectional, this study suggests the utility of the PDFF measurement within UK Biobank, particularly for applications to elucidating risk factors through associations with prospectively acquired data on clinical outcomes of liver diseases, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Background and Aims:Estimates of iron-overload, the most common cause of which is haemochromatosis, have been lacking within the UK population. As iron overload is treatable with venesection and/or chelation, early identification has clear utility. Long term consequences of untreated hepatic iron overload/haemochromatosis include cirrhosis, hepatocellular cancer and heart failure. To define the epidemiology of iron overload, we studied 5353 volunteers between the ages of 40 and 73 (Mean = 61 years) as part of the UK Biobank project. Methods:Individuals were scanned using a high-throughput abdominal MRI protocol which included the T2* Dixon method in LiverMultiScan to measure hepatic iron content. Results were collated, and analysed for population spread for the whole population, and then females and males separately. Results:The highest recorded iron load was 5.01mg/g, with the lowest 0.84mg/g. The 1 st quartile was 1.15mg/g, with the 3 rd quartile being 1.42mg/g. The median was 1.27mg. 261 (4.9%) had iron overload (>1.8mg/g), while 65 (1.2%) had severe iron overload (>2.5mg/g). Results by sex are shown in the table below.
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