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Quantification of liver proton‐density fat fraction in 7.1T preclinical MR systems: Impact of the fitting technique
Author(s) -
Mahlke Christoph,
Hernando Diego,
Jahn Christina,
Cigliano Antonio,
Ittermann Till,
Mössler Anne,
Kromrey MarieLuise,
Domaska Grazyna,
Reeder Scott B.,
Kühn JensPeter
Publication year - 2016
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.25319
Subject(s) - magnetic resonance imaging , nuclear magnetic resonance , triglyceride , nuclear medicine , linear regression , fatty liver , mathematics , medicine , pathology , radiology , statistics , physics , cholesterol , disease
Purpose To investigate the feasibility of estimating the proton‐density fat fraction (PDFF) using a 7.1T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system and to compare the accuracy of liver fat quantification using different fitting approaches. Materials and Methods Fourteen leptin‐deficient ob/ob mice and eight intact controls were examined in a 7.1T animal scanner using a 3D six‐echo chemical shift‐encoded pulse sequence. Confounder‐corrected PDFF was calculated using magnitude (magnitude data alone) and combined fitting (complex and magnitude data). Differences between fitting techniques were compared using Bland–Altman analysis. In addition, PDFFs derived with both reconstructions were correlated with histopathological fat content and triglyceride mass fraction using linear regression analysis. Results The PDFFs determined with the use of both reconstructions correlated very strongly ( r = 0.91). However, small mean bias between reconstructions demonstrated divergent results (3.9%; confidence interval [CI] 2.7–5.1%). For both reconstructions, there was linear correlation with histopathology (combined fitting: r = 0.61; magnitude fitting: r = 0.64) and triglyceride content (combined fitting: r = 0.79; magnitude fitting: r = 0.70). Conclusion Liver fat quantification using the PDFF derived from MRI performed at 7.1T is feasible. PDFF has strong correlations with histopathologically determined fat and with triglyceride content. However, small differences between PDFF reconstruction techniques may impair the robustness and reliability of the biomarker at 7.1T. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2016;44:1425–1431.