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Quantitative chemical shift‐encoded MRI is an accurate method to quantify hepatic steatosis
Author(s) -
Kühn JensPeter,
Hernando Diego,
Mensel Birger,
Krüger Paul C.,
Ittermann Till,
Mayerle Julia,
Hosten Norbert,
Reeder Scott B.
Publication year - 2014
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.24289
Subject(s) - magnetic resonance imaging , echo time , steatosis , fatty liver , nuclear medicine , nuclear magnetic resonance , in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy , medicine , voxel , gradient echo , radiology , pathology , physics , disease
Purpose To compare the accuracy of liver fat quantification using a three‐echo chemical shift‐encoded magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique without and with correction for confounders with spectroscopy (MRS) as the reference standard. Materials and Methods Fifty patients (23 women, mean age 56.6 ± 13.2 years) with fatty liver disease were enrolled. Patients underwent T2‐corrected single‐voxel MRS and a three‐echo chemical shift‐encoded gradient echo (GRE) sequence at 3.0T. MRI fat fraction (FF) was calculated without and with T2* and T1 correction and multispectral modeling of fat and compared with MRS‐FF using linear regression. Results The spectroscopic range of liver fat was 0.11%–38.7%. Excellent correlation between MRS‐FF and MRI‐FF was observed when using T2* correction (R 2 = 0.96). With use of T2* correction alone, the slope was significantly different from 1 (1.16 ± 0.03, P < 0.001) and the intercept was different from 0 (1.14% ± 0.50%, P < 0.023). This slope was significantly different than 1.0 when no T1 correction was used ( P = 0.001). When T2*, T1, and spectral complexity of fat were addressed, the results showed equivalence between fat quantification using MRI and MRS (slope: 1.02 ± 0.03, P = 0.528; intercept: 0.26% ± 0.46%, P = 0.572). Conclusion Complex three‐echo chemical shift‐encoded MRI is equivalent to MRS for quantifying liver fat, but only with correction for T2* decay and T1 recovery and use of spectral modeling of fat. This is necessary because T2* decay, T1 recovery, and multispectral complexity of fat are processes which may otherwise bias the measurements. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2014;39:1494–1501 . © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .