Obesity and excess weight affect over half the population in our community. Excess weight causes significant alternations in the organism and can affect how the liver works.Fat accumulating in the liver produces hepatic steatosis that, in certain circumstances, can cause inflammation, fibrosis and finally cirrhosis.

Until now, the most reliable method to determine hepatic fat was a hepatic biopsy. Imaging techniques such as an abdominal scan detect it but they are less accurate when determining the quantity of fat. This study has determined how magnetic resonance is a good method to detect fat in the liver and quantify it, even better than a hepatic biopsy.

This conclusion has been obtained after analysing 97 obese patients and 32 patients with other hepatic pathologies undergoing surgery. The quantity of liver fat was measured by comparing three different methods: magnetic resonance, hepatic biopsy and biochemical fat determination using the Folch method. Patients were given magnetic resonance the day before surgery and a liver sample was obtained during the operation.

The study was carried out by the research group run by Dr.Bujanda (in charge of the IIS Biodonostia Hepatic and Gastrointestinal Disease Research Area) and has been coordinated by Drs.Jesús Bañales and Raúl Jimenez. San Sebastian University Hospital Surgery, Digestive System and Pathological Anatomy Services also took part, along with Osatek and the Vitoria Pharmacy Faculty Nutrition Service.

This study has been published by the BMC Medicine journal, one of the most important journals in the field. It ratifies prior work carried out on animals published by the same research group a year ago that observed how hepatic fat quantification was very accurate using magnetic resonance.