Data extraction

The lead author (SQ) extracted the following study-level data: author, year, country, study design, and index test. Regarding patient-level data, we extracted information about the target population, number of participants, sex distribution, mean age, mean BMI, histological diagnoses, and the average interval between imaging and biopsy. Additionally, we extracted the following information regarding the index test: scanner manufacturer, field strength, repetition time, echo time, number of echoes, number of voxels/regions of interest, dimensionality (for MRI), reconstruction method (for MRI), and pulse sequence (for MRS).

A requirement for study inclusion was access to individual patient-level data for histological and MR-based liver fat measurements. Corresponding authors of the selected studies were contacted by e-mail to request raw data for this meta-analysis, and the authors were given 60 days to respond. If no response was received within this timeframe, we digitised the data from published figures.