Free-breathing liver fat quantification using a multiecho 3D stack-of-radial technique.

PURPOSE: The diagnostic gold standard for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is an invasive biopsy. Noninvasive Cartesian MRI fat quantification remains limited to a breath-hold (BH). In this work, a novel free-breathing 3D stack-of-radial (FB radial) liver fat quantification technique is developed and evaluated in a preliminary study.

METHODS: Phantoms and healthy subjects (n = 11) were imaged at 3 Tesla. The proton-density fat fraction (PDFF) determined using FB radial (with and without scan acceleration) was compared to BH single-voxel MR spectroscopy (SVS) and BH 3D Cartesian MRI using linear regression (correlation coefficient ρ and concordance coefficient ρc ) and Bland-Altman analysis.

RESULTS: In phantoms, PDFF showed significant correlation (ρ > 0.998, ρc  > 0.995) and absolute mean differences < 2.2% between FB radial and BH SVS, as well as significant correlation (ρ > 0.999, ρc  > 0.998) and absolute mean differences < 0.6% between FB radial and BH Cartesian. In the liver and abdomen, PDFF showed significant correlation (ρ > 0.986, ρc  > 0.985) and absolute mean differences < 1% between FB radial and BH SVS, as well as significant correlation (ρ > 0.996, ρc  > 0.995) and absolute mean differences < 0.9% between FB radial and BH Cartesian.

CONCLUSION: Accurate 3D liver fat quantification can be performed in 1 to 2 min using a novel FB radial technique. Magn Reson Med 79:370-382, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.