Noninvasive prediction of hepatic steatosis.

Abstract

The diagnosis of hepatic steatosis requires demonstration of fat infiltration of the liver in imaging studies or liver biopsy. Noninvasive scores composed of clinical and laboratory variables routinely measured in clinical practice can be used to predict hepatic steatosis without imaging or liver biopsy. Using two large and well-defined populations, Meffert et al. externally validated two of those noninvasive scoring systems, named Fatty Liver Index and the Hepatic Steatosis Index, and created and validated a new score named the SHIP score. Although the three scores had mixed accuracies, they perform relatively well in predicting the presence of hepatic steatosis.