Exploring non-invasive diagnostics and non-imaging approaches for pediatric metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease

Table 1 Comparison of magnetic resonance imaging-proton density fat fraction and transient elastography-controlled attenuation parameter for diagnosing hepatic steatosis in pediatric metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease

Method	Sensitivity (advanced steatosis)	Specificity (advanced steatosis)	Advantages	Disadvantages
MRI-PDFF	0.95	0.92	High accuracy for quantifying liver fat, detects early stages of MASLD, non-invasive	High cost, limited availability
TE-CAP	0.86	0.88	More accessible, cost-effective, non-invasive	Less reliable for early-stage MASLD, underdiagnoses when < 33% liver fat

MRI-PDFF: Magnetic resonance imaging-proton density fat fraction; TE-CAP: Transient elastography-controlled attenuation parameter; MASLD: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease.