Controlled attenuation parameter and alcoholic hepatic steatosis: Diagnostic accuracy and role of alcohol detoxification

[Display omitted] •CAP performed better in the determination of steatosis than regular ultrasonography.•CAP can be used to detect severe alcoholic steatosis and to rule in any steatosis.•CAP decreased significantly in non-obese ALD patients after alcohol detoxification. Controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) is a novel non-invasive measure of hepatic steatosis, but it has not been evaluated in alcoholic liver disease. Therefore, we aimed to validate CAP for the assessment of biopsy-verified alcoholic steatosis and to study the effect of alcohol detoxification on CAP. This was a cross-sectional biopsy-controlled diagnostic study in four European liver centres. Consecutive alcohol-overusing patients underwent concomitant CAP, regular ultrasound, and liver biopsy. In addition, we measured CAP before and after admission for detoxification in a separate single-centre cohort. A total of 562 patients were included in the study: 269 patients in the diagnostic cohort with steatosis scores S0, S1, S2, and S3 = 77 (28%), 94 (35%), 64 (24%), and 34 (13%), respectively. CAP diagnosed any steatosis and moderate steatosis with fair accuracy (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] ≥S1 = 0.77; 0.71–0.83 and AUC ≥S2 = 0.78; 0.72–0.83), and severe steatosis with good accuracy (AUC S3 = 0.82; 0.75–0.88). CAP was superior to bright liver echo pattern by regular ultrasound. CAP above 290 dB/m ruled in any steatosis with 88% specificity and 92% positive predictive value, while CAP below 220 dB/m ruled out steatosis with 90% sensitivity, but 62% negative predictive value. In the 293 patients who were admitted 6.3 days (interquartile range 4–6) for detoxification, CAP decreased by 32 ± 47 dB/m (p