Quantitative assessment of lipids in fatty liver disease using thermoacoustic tomography 

This research project was awarded the 2024 Birmingham BRC Collaboration Fund

Status: Ongoing

Metabolic dysfunction associated steatosis liver disease (MASLD) is a serious progressive condition in which fat buildup inside the liver. Over time, MASLD can lead to liver scaring (fibrosis) and ultimately liver failure or cancer. MASLD has become a global health challenge: it is estimated to affect around one in four people (>15 million people in the UK), yet patients often remain undiagnosed until the disease has reached a more advanced stage.

This is partly due to limitations of current diagnostic tools. Liver biopsy remains the gold standard, but is invasive and challenging to use as a screening tool. Non-invasive imaging techniques, such as MRI- or ultrasound-based approaches, could address these limitations, but their use is limited either by cost or insufficient sensitivity to detect early-stage disease.  

Project aims

In this project, we will investigate a new non-invasive imaging technique for MASLD, called thermoacoustic imaging. In thermoacoustic imaging, harmless pulses of microwaves are used to illuminate the body, where they are absorbed to produce ultrasound waves. The ultrasound waves can be detected outside the body to form an image, which represents the distribution of microwave absorption inside various tissue. Because fatty tissue absorbs microwave energy differently from healthy tissue, the technique has the potential to identify and quantify fat deposits within the liver, providing high resolution 3-D images that could aid early detection and diagnosis of MASLD. 

The project brings together expertise in imaging technology and liver disease research to investigate whether thermoacoustic imaging could become a useful tool for the early detection and monitoring of MASLD. Researchers will develop a prototype imaging scanner and carry out pilot studies using laboratory models and tissue samples containing fatty deposits.