Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background and Aim</jats:title><jats:p>MEFIB (the combination of magnetic resonance elastography [MRE] ≥ 3.3 kPa and fibrosis‐4 (FIB‐4) ≥ 1.6) is useful for detecting patients with significant fibrosis (fibrosis stage ≥ 2) having nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, age‐dependent thresholds of FIB‐4 have been proposed, and it remains unclear whether MEFIB could be applied with the same FIB‐4 threshold in a different cohort. Therefore, in this study, we examined the best threshold of FIB‐4 and validated the utility of MEFIB.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>This study included 105 biopsy‐proven NAFLD patients with contemporaneous MRE assessment. The primary outcome was a diagnostic accuracy for significant fibrosis.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>The median (interquartile range) age was 65 (58–72) years, and significant fibrosis was 76.2% (80/105). FIB‐4 of 2.1 was defined as the best threshold for significant fibrosis in the cohort. The area under the receiver operating characteristics curves (AUROCs) of the combination of MRE and FIB‐4 (MRE ≥ 3.3 kPa + FIB‐4 ≥ 1.6: 0.80, MRE ≥ 3.3 kPa + FIB‐4 ≥ 2.1: 0.84) were higher than those of each index alone (MRE ≥ 3.3 kPa: 0.76, FIB‐4 ≥ 1.6: 0.72, and FIB‐4 ≥ 2.1: 0.77), but AUROCs of MRE ≥ 3.3 kPa + FIB‐4 ≥ 1.6 and MRE ≥ 3.3 kPa + FIB‐4 ≥ 2.1 were equivalent (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.3).</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>MEFIB is useful for detecting patients with significant fibrosis and could be utilized in a different cohort without changing the threshold of FIB‐4, and it may then be used as a two‐step screening strategy.</jats:p></jats:sec>