Fat suppression in magnetic resonance imaging of the head and neck region: is the two-point DIXON technique superior to spectral fat suppression?

OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to systematically compare two-point Dixon fat suppression (FS) and spectral FS techniques in contrast enhanced imaging of the head and neck region.

METHODS: Three independent readers analysed coronal T1 weighted images recorded after contrast medium injection with Dixon and spectral FS techniques with regard to FS homogeneity, motion artefacts, lesion contrast, image sharpness and overall image quality.

RESULTS: 85 patients were prospectively enrolled in the study. Images generated with Dixon-FS technique were of higher overall image quality and had a more homogenous FS over the whole field of view compared with the standard spectral fat-suppressed images (p < 0.001). Concerning motion artefacts, flow artefacts, lesion contrast and image sharpness no statistically significant difference was observed.

CONCLUSION: The Dixon-FS technique is superior to the spectral technique due to improved homogeneity of FS and overall image quality while maintaining lesion contrast. Advances in knowledge: T1 with Dixon FS technique offers, compared to spectral FS, significantly improved FS homogeneity and over all image quality in imaging of the head and neck region.