Early diagnosis and timely treatment of hepatic steatosis is very important for controlling the development and improving the prognosis of disease.This paper introduces the controlled attenuation parameter(CAP),a novel non-invasive method to quantitatively assess hepatic steatosis.This paper briefly describes the advantages of CAP compared with other methods for detecting hepatic steatosis: CAP is simple,fast,repeatable,and generally accepted by patients.CAP is of great value for early detection of fatty liver.Moreover,this paper reviews the optimal cut-off values of CAP for detection of fatty liver in different studies.CAP can be used to dynamically monitor the progression and regression of fatty liver as a guide to clinical treatment.