Lower-cost TAEUS device tracks liver fat on par with gold standard
Study conducted by tool's developer also finds it offers more convenience
TAEUS, a diagnostic tool being developed by Endra Life Sciences, measures liver fat levels with similar accuracy to gold-standard tests, but with greater convenience and at less than a tenth of the cost, according to a feasibility study conducted by Endra.
“Drug developers and payors need to know if a patient is above or below the specific [liver fat fraction] thresholds that trigger costly therapies, reimbursement of those therapies, or trial enrollment,” Alexander Tokman, CEO of Endra, said in a company press release. “If TAEUS can shift even a fraction of trial imaging from MRI-PDFF [the gold-standard test for liver fat] to a point-of-care modality with comparable performance, the cost savings to large pharma on a per-trial basis could be significant.”
MRI-PDFF test can be burdensome, expensive
When a person’s liver fat levels are above about 5%, they are considered to have fatty liver disease. Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), the most common form, is marked by the buildup of liver fat that is typically linked to underlying metabolic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, or high blood pressure.
Left unchecked, liver fat accumulation can lead to inflammation and scarring, setting the stage for life-threatening problems like liver failure and cancer.
There are currently dozens of clinical trials ongoing to test experimental treatment approaches for MASLD. These trials typically include specific eligibility requirements regarding the amount of liver fat, so they generally test potential participants to determine their exact liver fat content.
However, the gold standard for measuring liver fat — a type of MRI scan known as MRI-PDFF — can be burdensome, typically requiring patients to travel to a center that has specialized equipment.
MRI-PDFF is also very expensive; according to Endra, an individual scan can cost more than $2,500. For this reason, trials usually don’t conduct routine MRI-PDFF scans to see how liver fat content changes over time, because it’s just not economically feasible.
TAEUS performed well in measuring liver fat fractions
The TAEUS device (short for Thermo-Acoustic Enhanced UltraSound) works by using high-frequency sound waves and radio waves to detect structures within the body and measure liver fat content. It is already commercially available in Europe.
The device is designed to be a point-of-care test — meaning the test doesn’t require specialized equipment and can be brought to patients, rather than requiring them to visit a testing center. According to Endra, the cost of one scan with the TAEUS device is less than $200 — about 8% of the cost associated with an MRI-PDFF scan.
These potential advantages would allow frequent monitoring over time to capture fast therapy-induced changes in liver fat content, which is impractical with MRI-PDFF scans. Endra noted that fatty liver disease trials could employ a hybrid model, where TAEUS is used for regular checks and MRI-PDFF for confirmation, which would considerably lower imaging costs.
In the 2025 TAEUS Liver device feasibility study, 40 people with MASLD and weights ranging from healthy to obese underwent tests with both the TAEUS device and MRI-PDFF. The goal was to see if the TAEUS device could measure liver fat with similar accuracy to the gold-standard assessment.
spectrum, including the critical 12-22% range.
The researchers were especially interested in determining how the new device performs in measuring liver fat fractions (LFF) thresholds of 12% to 17% (mild to moderate) and 20% to 22% (moderate to severe), which are crucial for making therapeutic decisions and enrolling patients in trials.
Results showed that TAEUS performed well, with an accuracy of 94% or higher at those thresholds and similarly high accuracy in identifying participants above or below each threshold.
The device also demonstrated good accuracy in identifying participants with liver fat levels of at least 8%, which is the cutoff used to help determine whether patients are eligible for insurance coverage for the approved MASLD treatment Rezdiffra (resmetiron).
“Our data show TAEUS tracks MRI-PDFF closely across the full [fatty liver disease] spectrum, including the critical 12-22% range,” Tokman said. “Additionally, at the 8% LFF threshold used for Rezdiffra reimbursement determination, TAEUS delivered a high [accuracy]. These threshold-based data are a pivotal step in demonstrating TAEUS’s utility in real-world clinical and economic decision-making.”
Endra is now conducting a second TAEUS feasibility study in Canada to confirm these findings. The study is expected to end in the coming months. The company also plans to discuss the design of a future study with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which would enable the submission of an application for clearance to market the device.
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