High Flip Angle Chemical-Shift Encoded MRI for Imaging Fetal Adipose Tissue

Fat fractions in fetal adipose tissue vary across gestation and across different regions of the body, and can be measured by chemical shift encoded MRI which provides accurate measurements of fat fraction above 10%. The assessment of lower fat fractions can be improved by increasing flip angle, but this introduces T1 bias. We demonstrated that this T1 bias can be corrected using fetal adipose tissue water and lipid T1 values, preserving accuracy of the fat fraction measurement while simultaneously improving its precision in fetal adipose tissue.