Comparing the accuracy of single- and dual-R2* fat-water models for assessing hepatic steatosis and iron overload using Monte Carlo simulations

Hepatic iron concentration (HIC) and fat fraction (FF) is assessed by chemical-shift encoded multi-spectral fat-water model that incorporates single- or dual-R2* correction. In this study, we designed a realistic virtual liver model simulating the combined presence of hepatic steatosis and iron overload using histology data and synthesized MRI signal in the virtual model using Monte-Carlo simulation to compare the accuracy of the R2* models to quantify FF in the presence of iron. Our results show that single-R2* is consistent than dual-R2* in estimating FF for HIC<=10 mg Fe/g after which both R2* models show higher error.