LITMUS Imaging Study

The LITMUS Imaging Study is a prospectively recruited, observational study of patients with histologically characterised non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). It aims to evaluate the diagnostic performance of imaging biomarkers (ultrasound elastography and magnetic resonance biomarkers) against NAFLD histological scores in a cross-sectional analysis and the natural history of NAFLD in a longitudinal study.

The LITMUS Imaging study is a non-interventional, observational study conducted in parallel to the European NAFLD Registry (NCT04442334), collecting cross-sectional and longitudinal ultrasound elastography and magnetic resonance elastography and imaging data. The LITMUS Imaging study recruits patients with NAFLD who are having a clinically indicated liver biopsy and are already participating in the European NAFLD Registry. Patients in the LITMUS Imaging study have additional imaging assessments at baseline (within 100 days of baseline liver biopsy) and 2 years after baseline (no follow-up biopsy necessary). Imaging assessments include point shear wave elastography, 2D shear wave elastography, MRI scans (Liver Multiscan, deMILI, diffusion weighted imaging, proton density fat fraction, T1 mapping) and MR elastography. Link-anonymised magnetic resonance data are uploaded to a central online portal and analysed centrally by 4 imaging core labs provided by Perspectum (Liver Multiscan), Antaros Medical (MR elastography and DWI), Resoundant (vendor specific PDFF) and University of Seville (deMILI).