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Electrical Impedance Tomography in Fatty Liver Detection

NCT05189990 · Status: COMPLETED · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 160

Last updated 2024-05-08

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a condition where hepatocytes contain an abnormally high fat percentage. This condition is becoming increasingly common due to unhealthy food habits and sedentary lifestyle. Since NAFLD is a silent disease, many patients would be diagnosed at the advanced stages when fat accumulation, scarring and liver cell damage are irreversible. Therefore, early diagnosis of fatty liver disease during its reversible stages is warranted. Current diagnostic techniques for fatty liver disease, such as the FibroScan® and MRI proton density fat fraction (PDFF) are expensive, and require the active work of certified professionals. Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) is an alternative low cost, non-invasive imaging technique that does not involve radiation nor a trained operator. The electrical conductivity of biological tissues varies according to the tissue type and frequency of AC current. Fat tissue conductivity is known to be substantially stable across the EIT current injection frequency spectrum. On the other hand, liver tissue conductivity significantly increases over frequency change. Hence, the liver fat content can be measured using frequency-difference EIT (fdEIT). The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of fdEIT in detecting fatty liver. To achieve this goal, a total of 160 subjects will be recruited, paired fdEIT-Fibroscan data will be acquired. First, optimal fdEIT current injection frequency range will be determined. Second, fdEIT derived indicators will be computed and statistical analysis will be performed to verify the significance of correlation between the two. Comparative exploration between EIT and MRI-PDFF will be performed on a subset of the study population, looking at both spatial localization and image derived indicators.

Finally, demographics, clinical assessment and patient history will be analysed to produce demographic group-based insights.

Conditions

  • Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Interventions

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Electrical impedance tomography

Fatty liver patients will be recruited from the Department of Medicine at Queen Mary Hospital. Gender- and age- matched control subjects will be publicly recruited. Subjects will undergo the EIT-liver scan and FibroScan®. Selected subgroups will also undergo MRI-PDFF scan. The performance characteristics of the device and with respect to Fibroscan/ MRI-PDFF for liver fat quantification will be assessed.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Gense Technologies Ltd.

    collaborator UNKNOWN

  • Innovation and Technology Commission, Hong Kong

    collaborator OTHER

  • The University of Hong Kong

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Lung-Yi Mak, MD · The University of Hong Kong

Eligibility

Min Age
20 Years
Max Age
75 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2022-01-01
Primary Completion
2024-02-29
Completion
2024-02-29

Countries

  • China

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT05189990 on ClinicalTrials.gov