Multinational study shows new magnetic resonance imaging method improves cost-effectiveness of liver disease diagnosis

A multinational study involving 802 participants, including 154 from Portugal and a team of researchers from the University of Coimbra (UC), found that a new magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) technique may help improve the diagnosis and monitoring of liver disease, particularly metabolic dysfunction–associated liver disease (MASLD), a condition characterised by excess fat in liver cells.

The research involved a randomised clinical trial with adults from Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the UK using LiverMultiScan, a non-invasive MRI technology that enables precise imaging and biomarker identification for disease monitoring. Developed by Perspectum, a multinational medical technology company, it provides a non-invasive method for diagnosing and monitoring chronic liver diseases, including steatotic liver disease, autoimmune hepatitis and viral hepatitis. This approach to disease diagnosis and monitoring can benefit both patients and healthcare systems by reducing reliance on liver biopsies, enabling more accurate diagnoses, and improving patient follow-up.

The research team was able to demonstrate that LiverMultiScan is a cost-effective tool that improves diagnostic accuracy, avoids unnecessary biopsies and is a pain-free option for patients. Thus, "This diagnostic approach offers a non-invasive procedure that avoids liver biopsies, improves the cost-benefit ratio, and allows more people to be diagnosed faster and with fewer medical consultations," said Miguel Castelo-Branco, Professor at the UC Faculty of Medicine (FMUC), Director of the Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research at the Institute of Nuclear Sciences Applied to Health (CIBIT/ICNAS), and one of the authors of the study.

In Portugal, this study involved UC, the Coimbra Local Health Unit (ULS Coimbra), and several health centres in the Centre region, with the participation of a multidisciplinary team that included FMUC professor Filipe Caseiro Alves and clinical teams from ULS Coimbra. In the Portuguese context, “this technique confirmed the improvement in quality of life and, at the same time, showed significant differences with other countries in terms of healthcare provision and costs,” explains Miguel Castelo-Branco, who further adds, “Interestingly, the discrepancy between the initial increase in costs and the long-term benefits was steeper in Portugal, which has an impact on the implementation of health promotion strategies.”

The University of Coimbra participated in this study as part of the European project RADIcAL - Non-invasive Rapid Assessment of Chronic Liver Disease Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging with LiverMultiScan, funded by the European Commission.

The results are published in the scientific article Utility and Cost-effectiveness of LiverMultiScan for MASLD Diagnosis: A Real-World Multi-National Randomised Clinical Trial, published in Communications Medicine, a Nature journal. The study's lead author is Elizabeth Shumbayawonda, Perspectum's Director of Market Access Strategy, with contributions from several scientists from European educational and research institutions. The scientific paper is available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-025-00796-9.