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Quantification of vertebral bone marrow fat content using 3 tesla MR spectroscopy: Reproducibility, vertebral variation, and applications in osteoporosis
Author(s) -
Li Xiaojuan,
Kuo Daniel,
Schafer Anne L.,
Porzig Anne,
Link Thomas M.,
Black Dennis,
Schwartz Ann V.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.22489
Subject(s) - osteoporosis , reproducibility , bone marrow , medicine , vertebral body , nuclear medicine , pathology , biomedical engineering , materials science , chemistry , anatomy , chromatography
Purpose: To determine the reproducibility of proton MR spectroscopy ( 1 H‐MRS) for assessing vertebral bone marrow adiposity at 3 Tesla (T); to evaluate variation of marrow adiposity at different vertebral levels; and to demonstrate the feasibility of using 1 H‐MRS at 3T for evaluating marrow adiposity in subjects with low bone density. Materials and Methods: Single voxel MRS was acquired at vertebral body L1 to L4 at 3T in 51 postmenopausal females including healthy controls (n = 13) and patients with osteoporosis/osteopenia (n = 38). Marrow fat contents were compared between vertebral levels and between groups using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Six subjects were scanned twice to evaluate technique reproducibility. Results: The average coefficient of variation of vertebral marrow fat content quantification was 1.7%. Marrow fat content significantly increased from L1 to L4. The average fat content was significantly elevated in patients with osteoporosis/osteopenia compared with controls, adjusted for age and body mass index ( P < 0.05). Conclusion: In vivo MRS at high field strength provides reliable measurement of marrow adiposity with excellent reproducibility and can be a valuable tool for providing complementary information on bone quality and potentially also fracture risk. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2011;33:974–979. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.