We used cross‐sectional and longitudinal studies to comprehensively compare hepatic steatosis measurements obtained with magnetic resonance imaging–proton density fat fraction (MRI‐PDFF) and controlled attenuated parameter (CAP) in hepatic steatosis in adults with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). A total of 185 participants with NAFLD and 12 non‐NAFLD controls were recruited. CAP and MRI‐PDFF data were collected at baseline from all participants and from 95 patients included in the longitudinal study after 24 weeks of drug or placebo intervention. Pearson correlation, linear regression, and piecewise linear regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationship between the two modalities. Linear analysis suggested a positive correlation between CAP and MRI‐PDFF (r = 0.577, p < 0.0001); however, piecewise linear regression showed no correlation when CAP was ≥331 dB/m (p = 0.535). In the longitudinal study, both the absolute and relative change measurements were correlated between the two modalities; however, the correlation was stronger for the relative change (relative r = 0.598, absolute r = 0.492; p < 0.0001). Piecewise linear regression analysis revealed no correlation when CAP was reduced by more than 53 dB/m (p = 0.193). Conclusions: We found a correlation between CAP and MRI‐PDFF measurements for grading hepatic steatosis when CAP was <331 dB/m. While the measured absolute change and relative change were correlated, it was stronger for the relative change. These findings have implications for the clinical utility of CAP or MRI‐PDFF in the clinical diagnosis and assessment of NAFLD.

Background: Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are prevalent in China. According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory, damp-heat (DH) syndrome is common in chronic liver disease. However, the biological characteristics related to quantitative diagnosis remain to be determined. This study aimed to identify the consistent alterations in the gut microbiota associated with DH syndrome in patients with CHB or NAFLD.Methods: A total of 405 individuals were recruited, of which 146 were participants who met the consistent TCM diagnosis by three senior TCM physicians and were typical syndromes. All participants were required to provide fresh stool and serum samples. The gut microbiota was assessed by fecal 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and the serum metabolite profiles of participants were quantified by an ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) system. DH syndrome-related bacteria taxa were identified based on the 146 individuals with typical syndromes and validated in all 405 volunteers.Results: The results showed that CHB and NAFLD patients with typical TCM DH syndrome had consistently elevated serum total bile acid (TBA) levels. Significant alterations in microbial community were observed according to TCM syndromes identification. A total of 870 microbial operational taxonomic units and 21 serum metabolites showed the same variation trends in both the CHB and NAFLD DH syndrome groups. The functional analysis predicts consistent dysregulation of bile acid metabolism. Five genera (Agathobacter, Dorea, Lachnospiraceae_NC2004_group, Subdoligranulum, and unclassified_c__Clostridia) significantly decreased in abundance in patients with DH syndrome. We utilize these five genera combined with TBA to construct a random forest classifier model to predict TCM diagnosis. The diagnostic receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) areas for DH syndrome were 0.818 and 0.791 in internal tenfold cross-validation and the test set based on all 405 individuals, respectively.Conclusion: There are common signatures of gut microbiota associated with DH syndrome in patients with different chronic liver diseases. Serum TBA combined with DH-related genera provides a good diagnostic potential for DH syndrome in chronic liver disease.