Yamada K, et al. - In this study involving 78 non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients and 24 healthy people, researchers examined the serum fatty acid composition and assessed the possibility of using the serum fatty acid composition as a diagnostic marker of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). By calculating the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC), the diagnostic performance of NASH was evaluated. The fatty acid analysis results showed that the C16:1n7/C16:0 ratio was the strongest correlation between serum and liver tissue. Assessment of the C16:1n7/C16:0 serum association with hepatic histology revealed a significant correlation with lobular inflammation score, ballooning score, and fibrosis score. Data reported that the AUROC for all NAFLD patients to predict NASH was 0.7097. Overall, the investigators suggested that measuring the serum C16:1n7/C16:0 ratio can be an effective non-invasive method for NASH diagnosis, especially at its early stages.